James A Maxey and Mary M. Byars (couple 10)

[Mom's paternal grandfather's maternal Grandparents]
[Everett Ezra Shanklin > Susan Ida Maxey > Maxey/Byars]

Our next Weakley County couple is actually just down the road.  It seems that courting the farmer's daughter next door is really the way to go.  Couple 9 provided George Harrison Shanklin, and couple 10 will produce Susan Ida Maxey.  

James A. Maxey
BIRTH: 19 Oct 1846, Weakley, Tennessee
DEATH: 27 Dec 1885,Weakley, Tennessee, United States

Mary M Byars
BIRTH: 24 March 1846, Weakley, Tennessee, United States
DEATH: 05 Mar 1892, Tennessee, United States


James A. Maxey ("Jim") was born 19 Oct 1846 in Weakley County, TN.  He would live and work in District 4 his entire life, which was actually cut somewhat short, dying at age 39 on 27 December 1885.

He was born to Edward Maxey (1820-1877) who had moved from Lauderdale, Alabama to Tennessee with his parents sometime between 1824 and 1830.  I suppose that perhaps along the way, or after arriving in Weakley County, Edd met and married Mahala Morgan (1817-1898) who was born in North Carolina.

On 26 March, 1868, he married Mary M Byars.  She also was born and raised in Weakley County.  As far as I can tell, she was born 24 Mar 1845, the third of 9 kids.  Likewise, she died relatively young at age 47, on 05 Mar 1892.

Her parents Alfred Byars (1821-1880) of Granville, North Carolina and Stacy Ann Bowlin (1824--    ) of Virginia, who must have been children of westward migrants.  They bought a 150 acre farm in 1849 on both sides of the North Fork of the Obion River.

One of the family stories about the Maxey's early days in Tennessee hints at the rough life on the western frontier.

In those days, the KKK were acting as guerillas, and terrorized some of they locals.  They would come to homes and try to take people's hams and other foodstuffs, even demanding the people cook them up for them!  At one point, they intended to kill Edd.    Jim's dad Edd was a large man. They told Jim to go and get a rope, and that they were going to hang Edd (and possibly others) if they didn't tell them where the family's hams were.  He got the rottenist ropes he could find, and so when they hanged James, the rope broke.  As a result, the Maxeys lived to tell the tale. 

 James A. Maxey and Mary M Byars Maxey are both buried at the Maxey Family Cemetery, nestled in a grove of trees at the corner of Latham Highway and Boydsville Road.  Edward Maxey is the first interment there, so we might suppose that he owned the land there along the highway, which is fairly convenient to where the Byars farm might have been.

Census Study
We know that in 1860 he was listed in the household of his father, over in District 4 (same district as the Shanklins, between Latham and Palmersville).

By 1870, he and Mary M. Byars were married with a 1 year old, Lila.  They lived next door to Mary's parents (Alfred and Stacy Byars), owned no land, but had $200 worth of household (compared to Alfred's $3000 in real estate and $500 household).  Interestingly, this Census lists Stacy as illiterate.   Next door on the other side lived Adaline Thompson(58), with Robert E Thompson (22), and Levonia Eskridge (26) and Levonia's two children. They lived down the street from Thomas J Brann, John Bryant, Pleasant Thacker.

Over the course of the next several years, they had 5 kids.
  Lila A. Maxey Price (1869 - 1928) (m. 1884 Louis Monroe Price, 5 kids)
  Mary J. Maxey Price (1871 - 1943) (while single she live with her sister, after her sister died m. 1928 Louis Monroe Price)
  Susan Ida Maxey Shanklin (1872 - 1917)* (My ancestor! Described here.)
  Mentie Lee Maxey Wheeler (1875 - 1961)
  James Albert Maxey (1882 - 1968)


In 1880-- not sure what happened.  There seems to be no record of anyone in the family here.  Did the Census taker miss the neighborhood?

The children and grandchildren of Jim Maxey and Mary Byars, sometime around 1898, perhaps.

An interesting story, derived from the Census records:
    So you know how Louis Monroe Price married Lila A. Maxey, then when she died, he married his spinster sister-in-law who was living with them?  I suppose to some extent that was out of propriety, because she couldn't go on living under his roof without her sister there, and remaining unmarried to him.  They were married within a month of Lila's death.  Well anyway, back in the 1900 census, he was also taking care of Thomas and Martha Bruce's children (his neices/nephews), perhaps because they were orphaned.  Turns out that in 1880, the Bruces were living next door to Allen Shanklin.  Thomas Bruce wasn't listed as a farmer, but also not listed as unemployed, so I think he must have been a farm hand to Allen.  Which tells me that if indeed the children were both orphans by 1889 when Martha died, then those kids would have been Allen's daughter-in-law's (Susan Ida Maxey m. George Harrison Shanklin) sister's (Lilie A Maxey m. Louis Monroe Price) neices (Martha Bell Price m. T. J. Bruce).  Just goes to show it takes a village to raise a child.

"J.A. // Maxey // Born //
Oct 19 1846 // Died // Dec 27 1885"

"M.M.//MAXEY//wife of//J.A.MAXEY//Born//
Mar 24 1845//Died//Mar 5 1892"

Somewhere around here (marked in red box):

Nothing like a little flooding to see the Obion River a bit more clearly!  North, Middle, South, and Rutherford Forks are the main "fingers" on the northern-most east-west river system.  The Byars owned land straddling the North Fork right around the first camel hump.