James Maxwell and Susan Austin of Nova Scotia

A brick wall on the Moore side is James Maxwell, husband of Susan Austin and father of Susan Maxwell who married Charles Henry Howe. I just found James and Susan's marriage certificate in the Nova Scotia Archives. Witnesses were James Maxwell (father?) and Alexander Wallace. It's just a tiny step closer to finding more about James. He died before 1846 when his wife and children migrated to Braintree, Massachusetts.

Susan Austen Maxwell was the daughter of Thomas Austen, a Nova Scotia merchant and his wife, Elizabeth Letson. The Austen's originally came from Cork, Ireland. Elizabeth's father, Robert, was a Loyalist emigre who came to Nova Scotia from New York during the Revolutionary War.

Charles Henry Howe

Charles Henry Howe was employed by the B&M Railroad as a machinist. When his two sons, Charles Herbert and Frank Emmons were aged 3 and 1, their mother, Susan passed away. Their father remarried in 1867 to Lucy Sarah Brown, but apparently the new family didn't have room for Susan's two sons.  In 1870 the  two boys were living with their Howe grandparents in Ipswich.

Susan Maxwell

I've always love this picture of Susan Maxwell. She is so sweet and I find it so sad that she died so young, only 24 years old. I think she would have been sad to leave her babies. The younger son, Frank, became a farmer in Ipswich. The older son, Charles Henry, the Moore line ancestor went to Dartmouth College and became the principal of Wakefield High School in Wakefield, Massachusetts.