Sacramento County
Biographies
HARRY S.
MADDOX
HARRY
S. MADDOX—An enterprising representative of
business interests in Sacramento is found in Harry S. Maddox, one of the
city’s successful life insurance men, who is also a former state market
director and a recognized authority on production and marketing. Mr. Maddox is
a native of Ohio, born in Georgetown, Brown County, August 24, 1866, a son of
David E. and Martha A. (Connor) Maddox, natives of Brown and Adams Counties,
Ohio, respectively, and descendants of old pioneer families. The ancestors on
the paternal side came originally from England to the present site of Baltimore and bought land from the Lord Baltimore
grant. Eleven members of the family participated in the Revolutionary War, and
the family has been represented in all the wars of the country, including the
late World War. Grandfather Thompson Maddox located in Brown County, Ohio, where he was a pioneer farmer. David E.
Maddox, the father of Harry S. Maddox, was also a farmer, and served in the
Civil War as a member of the 70th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in
McKinley’s Division. He removed to Kansas
in 1884, and located in the city of Paola, where he bought a farm and now resides.
The maternal family of Connors came from the north of Ireland and was of Scotch descent. They settled
in Ohio, and farmed in Adams County. The mother passed away years ago.
Harry S. Maddox is the eldest of seven
children and was educated in the public schools of Ohio and Kansas. He attended the Paola Normal School and afterwards graduated from the Sedalia Business College, in Sedalia, Mo. He entered the employ of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad as a
telegraph operator, and later went to Colorado, where he was employed as ticket and
freight agent in the operating department, for eighteen years, for the D. &
R. G. Railroad. He became interested in chamber-of-commerce activities and
spent three years with the Canon City Chamber of Commerce in Colorado, and then
came to California, in 1912, as secretary of the Yolo County Board of Trade, continuing
in that position for four years. He then became secretary and manager of the
Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, serving over three years, when Governor
Stephens appointed him state superintendent of weights and measures. Soon
after, he was promoted by the governor to the office of state market director.
Taking up his duties, he served with ability for over one year, when in July,
1922, he resigned to return to private business, taking up his life-work of
many years, life insurance, as general agent for the Lincoln National Life
Insurance Company, with offices in the Capital National Bank Building. During
its inception Mr. Maddox promoted the new Sacramento Market, an innovation new
to Sacramento. His years of investigation and his
surveys of the markets of different states, in which he had covered more than
2,500 miles, convinced him that Sacramento was ready for a market such as he had in
mind.
Mr. Maddox was married in Galva, Kans., to Miss Mary a. Colby, born in Ashtabula County, Ohio. They have one daughter, Annette, who
graduated from high school in Canon
City, Colo., and continued her education in the University of California. She is now the wife of Peter R. Gadd, Jr., of Sacramento. Mr. Maddox is a Master Mason and a
member of the A. O. U. W., and also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and
other civic organizations. He is vice-president of the American Center Church, and is a director of the County
Anti-Tuberculosis Association. During the war he took an active part in war
work and was a four-minute speaker. He also served as city and county food
administrator, making one of the best records in California during the World War. He is a member of
the Grace M. E. Church, and a member of its official board; and he is president
of the Men’s Club of the church.
Transcribed by Gloria Wiegner
Lane.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page
380. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Gloria
Wiegner Lane.