Orrin T. Maxson
Orrin Teall Maxson (March 17, 1823May 12, 1895) was an American physician, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was an important early settler of Prescott, Wisconsin, and represented northwestern Wisconsin in the Wisconsin State Assembly during the 1853 and 1857 legislative sessions. His name was often abbreviated ; his last name was sometimes spelled Maxon. Early life Orrin T. Maxson was born March 17, 1823, in Centerville, New York, where his father was a pioneer settler. He was raised and educated in Centerville. During these formative years, his father and older brother, Arthur, went to the Wisconsin Territory in 1837 and became some of the first settlers at what is now Darien, Wisconsin. They also established the first sawmill there in 1841. Orrin attended Rush Medical College in Chicago and graduated in the class of 1849. After his time in medical school he went west for a year and helped establish a hospital in Colorado. Prescott settlement and political career After a year in Colorado, Maxson came back to Wisconsin to the site of what is now Prescott, Wisconsin. That site had first been settled by Philander Prescott in 1841, but had languished due to land disputes with the federal government and the influential American Fur Company. Maxson was one of the pioneers who finally broke this impasse, buying out some of the original fur trading interests and establishing the first store in 1851. In 1852 and 1853, Maxson went about purchasing much of the land which is now Prescott, Wisconsin, in partnership with William J. Copp. They had the site platted and surveyed and actively promoted the growth of the settlement, and Maxson operated a medical practice there for the next fifteen years. Maxson was appointed the first postmaster at Prescott in 1852. The first school district in the area was also organized in 1852, and Maxson was elected the first clerk of the school district in the fall of 1852. That same fall, Maxson was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly, running on the Democratic Party ticket. He represented the vast northwest district, stretching along the border and coast from what is now Pierce County in the south to what is now Ashland County in the north. Pierce County was first organized in 1853, and that fall Maxson was selected as the first justice of the peace. After the creation of the Republican Party in 1854, Maxson became a member of the new party. Through the 1850s, Maxson was identified with a group of Republican men in Prescott referred to as the "Waukegan Clique", including Austin H. Young. Maxson most likely met some of them while attending college in Illinois. He next ran for state office in 1856 and was elected to another term in the Wisconsin State Assembly. His district this time stretched from Pierce County into the core of the northwest quadrant of Wisconsin, including the areas that are now Clark, Chippewa, Eau Claire, Dunn, Pepin, Rusk, and Price counties. Following the 1857 legislative session, Maxson was