Contractor.
He was born in Northern Ireland on 11 July 1823. In 1841 he married Kathleen Montgomery, and they had one child. After the death of his first wife he married Jane Dillorth, and they had three children.
In 1844 he migrated to Canada, settling first at Toronto for a brief time and later in Huron County, near the town of Wingham. The Maxwell family moved to Manitoba in 1872, travelling to Moorhead, Minnesota by rail and proceeding onward by wagon. Arriving at Fort Garry on 12 July 1872, where an Orange procession was in progress, he joined in the march. He became a member of the Grand Lodge on the day of its incorporation. For the next 35 years he held office as Grand Secretary.In Winnipeg, Maxwell became a contractor, constructing such buildings as the Hespeler Block on Main Street, the old Customs House, the Dominion Lands’ Office, the Bannatyne Block, and the Canadian Pacific Railway telegraph office. Also he had the honour of turning the first sod in connection with the building of the first railroads in Manitoba and the North-West Territories.
Maxwell died in Winnipeg, September 1911.
Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association, 1971.
Page revised: 29 March 2008
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