Jefferson County Illinois Biographies

History of the Illinois Central Railroad Company and Representative 
by William K. Ackerman
Page 316
Submitted By: Cindy Ford

J.L. MAXFIELD, a veteran conductor on the Central at Centralia, 
was born at Rome, now Dix, in Jefferson county, Illinois, June 7, 1853, the 
eldest of a family of twelve children all of whom are living. 

Mr. Maxfield began railroading at the age of twenty at the bottom of the ladder. 
For a few days he worked on the section in the Centralia yards under Chris. Davis, 
and was then set to work shoveling coal onto the engines in the yards at what was 
to him then good wages, a dollar and a quarter a day. When he was promoted to brakeman 
by trainmaster J. W. Seymour, on the run between Centralia and Cairo, at a dollar and 
seventy-three cents a day, he thought he was drawing munificent wages. After three 
years twisting brakes, Mr. Maxfield was surprised one evening to be ordered to Ullin 
to take charge of a wrecking train and clear up a wreck. From that time on he was in 
charge of a train having his monthly wages increased from sixty-six the first to 
seventy-five dollars the third year. After about four years in the freight service 
between Centralia and Cairo he resigned February 9, 1881 and did not re-enter the 
service until August 27, 1886, when he was given a run between Centralia and Champaign 
and has been regularly in that service since, excepting some ninety days when there 
was sickness in his family. During all his service he has not suffered a suspension 
nor received a demerit mark, and the two wrecks in which he has been involved have 
been chargeable to others and not to him. 

Mr. Maxfield was married to Miss Hattie Morrison. Her mother was born in Gilford county, 
North Carolina. Her brother, James K. Morrison, was for many years an employe of the Central, 
and has been engaged the past seven years as passenger conductor in the service of the 
Minneapolis & St. Louis line below St. Paul. Mr. Maxfield's parents, John and Charlotte 
Maxfield, now reside at Farina, Illinois.- To Mr. and Mrs. Maxfield ten children have been 
born, of whom Charles E., the eldest, is now braking on the Champaign division of the Central; 
Caryol, now Mrs. Maddox ; Ida B., James L., C. Harold, Clinton C., Earnest R., George W., 
Marion M., and Raymond.



 


 



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