Samuel Bell Maxey was born on March 30, 1825 to Rice and Lucetta Pope Bell Maxey in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. Maxey graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1846 and served in the U.S. Army during the U.S–Mexico War. After leaving the Army, he joined his father’s law firm in Kentucky and married Marilda Cass Denton in 1853.
Maxey and his father moved their families to Paris, Texas in 1857 and continued their law careers. Maxey was elected to the Texas State Senate in December 1860, but the state seceded from the United States before he took office. Instead, he formed the Ninth Texas Infantry Regiment to serve the Confederate States, eventually rising to the rank of major general. After the Civil War, Maxey attempted to resurrect his legal career, but found he required a personal pardon from President Andrew Johnson to continue his law practice or to hold public office. After many unsuccessful attempts, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Maxey’s classmate from West Point, recommended his presidential pardon and his citizenship rights were restored.
The fees collected from legal cases allowed the newly restored attorney to build his house on Church Street, which was completed in December 1868. Maxey and Marilda moved into the house, along with their 12-year-old adopted daughter, Dora Rowell Maxey. Their fashionable house was designed to resemble an Italian villa with elongated, hooded windows, a portico and open porches. The elaborate carvings on the front columns and other rich architectural details are reflections of the Victorian love for embellishment. This house was a progressive addition to the city’s architecture and considered a proper home for Maxey’s prominent status.
In 1874, Maxey was elected to the first of two terms in the United States Senate. Known as “The Beaver of the Senate,” because of his tireless work, he developed legislation that improved national harbors, railroads, post offices and post roads. Sen. Maxey died in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in August 1895; his body was brought home to Paris and laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery.
Sam Bell Maxey Long (Maxey’s great-nephew) and his wife Lala inherited the home in 1908 and began extensive remodeling in 1911. The Longs made several additions to the back of the building, including a breakfast room, a first floor laundry room and an upstairs sewing room. They combined two of the sitting rooms to create a larger, more formal parlor. Outside, brick walkways were re-laid and the original fence was replaced by a boxwood hedge along Church Street.
Last updated: 11/10/2009 9:52:52 AM