John Mowry Maxson is the gent seated in the

John Mowry Maxson is the gent, on the left, seated in the "doorway" of the tent with a white short-sleeve shirt on.

My grandfather, John Mowry Maxson, was born in 1876. He married Alice Butterfield at an early age (about 18), and they lived in Stonington, CT with her mother, who was an overbearing, impossible mother-in-law. Her mother would not allow them to move to their own place, nor would she allow her daughter to leave the area with her new husband. After a few years of this, my grandfather could not take any more and he finally left without his wife and infant daughter.

He joined the Army, 2nd Connecticut Regiment, and stayed in for 15 years. He was in the 2nd Cavalry, which was part of the famous "White Fleet" under Teddy Roosevelt, was in the Spanish American War, went to the Philippines, and sailed around the world. He was stationed somewhere in the West when this picture was taken (unfortunately we don't know exactly where they were in the picture). I am told that he was a sharpshooter on his pistol team.

While he was in the Army, his wife filed for divorce. My grandfather did not see his little girl, Mabel, again until she was about 16 years old. (She had been living with her grandmother, but after her father contacted
her when he returned to the area, she soon moved in with him and his second wife, Ardelle, where they lived in Hopkinton, RI). About five years later, my Dad, Clarence R. Maxson was born.

A note: We still have grandpa's military uniform jacket and the trunk he used in his travels, with the initials JMM on the side.