JUDGE RICE MAXEYJUDGE RICE MAXEY. The subject of this sketch is a native of Kentucky and was born at Tompkinsville, the county seat of Monroe county, on the 1st day of May, 1857. He is the third son of Dr. A. H. Maxey and wife, Lucy A. Maxey (nee Garner) who were also natives of the state of Kentucky, and were married in Monroe county in 1850. There were born of said marriage ten children, of whom seven are now living, namely: Radford, Rice, Fannie, Lucetta, J. B., S. B., and Leslie Maxey, all born in Kentucky, except the last named, who was born in Texas. Radford Maxey is a farmer and stock raiser and lives in Collin county; Fannie married S. L. Brown of Decatur, Texas, and she with her husband, who is a merchant, now resides in Velasco, Texas; Lucetta married J. P. Leslie, an attorney, and they now reside in Sherman, Texas; Samuel B. Maxey is a graduate in medicine and now actively engaged in the practice of his profession at Angleton, Texas. J. Benton Maxey is an attorney and resides in Sherman; Leslie, the youngest child, is now teaching, but is studying law and expects to make law his profession. Dr. Maxey, the father of Judge Maxey, was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College at Louisville, Kentucky, and was actively engaged in the practice of his profession for more than thirty years in the state of Kentucky and sixteen years in Texas. In 1873 he removed with his family to the state of Texas and located in Collin county. In 1880 he moved to Grayson county, and died in Sherman, Texas, on the 11th day of December, 1889, at the age of seventy-three years. His widow made her home with Judge Maxey until the date of her death, which occurred at Denison, Texas, on the 28th day of June, 1905, she then being seventy-five years of age. Judge Maxey was admitted to the bar in 1880. In 1881 he formed a partnership with Colonel A. A. DeBerry and Captain Tillman Smith at Cleburne, Texas, where he was engaged in the practice under the firm name of DeBerry, Smith & Maxey until the latter part of 1883, when he removed to Crockett, Houston county, Texas, where he lived and practiced law until 1890. In 1886, as the Democratic nominee, Judge Maxey was elected county attorney of Houston county, and re-elected to the same position in 1888. In 1887 he was married at Palestine, Texas, to Miss Margaret A. Broyles of Asheville, North Carolina. In 1890 he removed to Sherman, Texas, where he engaged in the general practice of his profession until 1892, when, as the Democratic nomine, he was elected prosecuting attorney of Grayson county he re-entered the general practice of law with Hon. C. L. Vowell, which continued until 1900, when, as the Democratic nominee, he was elected Judge of the fifteenth judicial district; this position he held until January, 1905, at which time he resigned and entered the firm of which he is now a member, namely, Wolfe-Hare & Maxey. The firm of Wolfe-Hare & Maxey maintain offices at both Sherman and Denison, Texas. Judge Maxey resides at Denison and other members of the firm at Sherman. Judge Maxey never failed of election to any position he sought before the people and bears the reputation of being one of the best electioneers and campaigners in the state. He filled every official position occupied by him with great credit to himself and unusual satisfaction to the people. He has had charge of much important litigation, both civil and criminal, and is recognized as one of the most successful trial lawyers in the state. He was a terror to criminals while prosecuting attorney, and no man, perhaps, ever occupied the district bench in Texas who was sustained in a greater per cent of case on appeal to the higher courts than was Judge Maxey. B. B. Padock, History and Biographical Record of North and West
Texas, Vol. I (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), pp. 515-516. |
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