San Joaquin County
Biographies
MAXWELL H.
CUSICK
A successful stockraiser,
Maxwell H. Cusick owns and conducts a thirty-two acre ranch, where he breeds
pure Holstein dairy cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs. He was born near Rochester, Monroe County,
New York. When Maxwell H. Cusick was a
little over four years old, he was taken by his parents to Minnesota where they
settled near Owatonna, Steele County, where he first attended school. The father, James Maxwell Cusick, bought
school land in Minnesota and lived there until 1897, when he came to southern
California. There were eight children in
the family: Morris resides at Fullerton,
California; Maxwell of this review; George lives at Byron, California; Mary
resides in Rochester, Minnesota; Emma lives at Geneva, Minnesota; Augusta lives
in Mankato, Minnesota; Henrietta, deceased; Jessie resides in Los Angeles,
California. The father passed away at
Whittier, California at the age of ninety-five years. Mrs. Cusick lived to reach her ninety-first
year. This worthy couple lived together
for almost sixty-five years.
When Maxwell H. Cusick was seventeen
years of age, he left home and began teaching school in Minnesota and attended
the Academy, teaching between times to support himself. In 1887 he attended Madison University (now
Colgate University), Hamilton, New York, and in 1891 finished at the University
of Rochester. New York. He then entered
the ministry of the Baptist Church at St. Charles and Granite Falls, Minnesota;
and later was minister at Rose and Walworth, New York. Giving up the ministry, he engaged in farming
near Rochester, New York, for seven years, and in 1903 sold his real estate
there and came to California, settling at La Habra, where he continued his
farming operations until 1908. Removing
to Oregon, he homesteaded a ranch on the Rogue River, which he proved up on and
later sold on account of his wife’s health.
The family then moved to Santa Rosa, California, and in 1914 Mrs. Cusick
passed away. They were the parents of
six children. Milton resides in
Stockton. He served as second lieutenant
of infantry during the World War, trained troops in the United States, then was
sent to Europe and was there when the Armistice was signed; he remained there
during the winter and was sent to Edinburg University at Edinburg, where he
took an agricultural course for four months, then returned to the United
States. Mary lives at Stockton; James
and Roy live at Ripon; James served as a sergeant in the air service as a
mechanic, spending two years in Europe, then returned to the United States and
received his discharge; Henrietta lives in Stockton; and Ida is at home.
After Mrs. Cusick’s
death the family came to San Joaquin County to the present home one mile east
of Harmony Grove schoolhouse, where Mr. Cusick purchased thirty-two acres of
land and where he maintains his herd of pure-bred Holstein cattle and
Duroc-Jersey hogs. In politics he is a
Republican, and while residing in Oregon was justice of the peace of his
township.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1550. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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