Samuel A. Maxwell. The career of Samuel A. Maxwell is a noble illustration of what independence, self-faith and persistency can accomplish in America. He is a self-made man in the most significant sense of the word for no one helped him in a financial way and he is self-educated. In his youth he was strong, vigorous and self-reliant. He trusted in his own ability and did things single-handed and alone. Today he stands supreme as a successful business man and a loyal and public-spirited citizen. Much of his attention has been given to the promotion of agriculture and at the present time he is cashier of the Citizens State Bank of Coalgate, an institution that has benefited greatly by his shrewd counsel.

Mr. Maxwell was born in Gainesville, Texas, in the year 1880, and he is a son of Z. T. and Laura L. (Duncan) Maxwell, the former of whom went to Texas from Missouri shortly after the outbreak of the Civil war, in which three of his brothers had enlisted under Quantrell. Subsequently Z. T. Maxwell moved into West Texas and there assisted in the organization of several towns, among them Plainview. In 1891 he located on a farm on Oil Creek, near Ardmore, Indian Territory, and there raised to maturity a large family of children: B. C. Maxwell is city manager of Coalgate; F. W. Maxwell is manager of the Coal County Abstract Company at Coalgate; W. E. Maxwell is a farmer in Coal County; Sallie is the wife of J. W. Hurst, a farmer in Coal County; Samuel A. is the subject of this sketch; and Marcus, Curtis, Mrs. Edna Williams and Miss Violet all live in San Saba County, Texas. Mrs. Maxwell is a daughter of Doctor Duncan, a pioneer settler and well known resident of Sulphur Springs, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell are both living and are in the enjoyment of good health; their home is in San Saba County, Texas.

Under the sturdy discipline of the home farm near Ardmore, Oklahoma, Samuel A. Maxwell was reared to maturity. At the age of eighteen years, with his father’s blessings, he started out to make his own way in the world. He had lived in a thinly settled country where respectable neighbors were few and Indians had the habit of putting one another out of the world through open fights and drunken brawls. Public schools were open for but a few months each year and only the more fortunate children were able to attend a subscription school. Outlaws were numerous and, civilization of the sort enjoyed today was several years in the future. It was out of an environment of this sort that young Maxwell walked. He went back to Texas and sought work and subsequently entered the West Texas Normal & Business College, at Cherokee, pursuing a scientific and business course and graduating at the age of twenty-three. He earned every dollar of the money with which he defrayed his expenses and missed very little time out of school. Sweeping floors, making beds and teaching represented his work out of school hours and yet he was able to keep up with his class in four subjects. After graduating he returned to Oklahoma and secured a position as teacher in the Indianola Business College, at Tecumseh, remaining there for three years, during a part of which time he was president of the college. In 1909 he entered the employ of the Citizens State Bank at Coalgate as bookkeeper, later buying stock and accepting the position of assistant cashier. Since 1912 he has held the responsible position of cashier of this reliable financial institution, which is capitalized with a stock of $25,000 and of which C. Y. Semple is president and Thomas Pope vice president. Mr. Maxwell is a member of the Coalgate Chamber of Commerce and is one of the most active men in Coal County in the promotion of agriculture. In connection with his banking interests he holds membership in the Coal County, the Oklahoma State and the American Bankers associations. His religious affiliations are with the Christian Church, to whose support he is a liberal contributor.

In 1904, in Hood County, Texas, Mr. Maxwell married Miss Ora Rater, a daughter of a pioneer settler in Indian Territory. One son has been born to this union: Leo, whose birth occurred in 1905.