"The Sabbath Recorder", Vol 82, No 19, p 597, May 7, 1917.

On Wednesday night, April 11, 1917, one of our foremost and beloved citizens of Gentry passed from the scene of his earthly activities. Russell John Maxson was the third in a family of six children of Nathan and Sylvia Palmer Maxson, and was born in Richburg, N. Y., January 16, 1842. At the age of nineteen he heard his country's call to service, and with the patriotism which was a marked characteristic of his whole life, he enlisted in the 85th Regiment of N. Y. Volunteers, as a member of Co. I. Later he was discharged on account of sickness, but returned to service. Again he was obliged to return home on account of illness, yet he was able to serve, in all, about two years, and received honorable wounds which he bore throughout his life.

Soon after the war he went to Farina, Ill., and here two events took place which determined the whole course of his after life. He enlisted once more; this time under the banner of the Cross, and for life. He was baptized by Elder C. M. Lewis, June 15, 1866, and became a constituent member of the Farina Seventh Day Baptist Church. At Farina also he met and won his young bride, Anna Crandall, whom he married December 31, 1870, and with whom he lived in ideal wedlock for more than forty-six years.

Eleven children were born to this union, all of whom are living except one.

A residence of ten years at Farina, Ill., thirteen years in Nortonville, Kan., and eight years at Flandreau, S. D., brought the family in 1899 to Gentry, Ark. This place has been their home since that Thanksgiving Day seventeen years ago.

For a number of years his health has been steadily declining. A visit to the celebrated surgeons, the Mayos, of Rochester, Minn., about a year ago, was unavailing. But he bore the long and painful illness with the sweet spirit and dauntless courage of a true soldier of Jesus Christ, and then fell asleep, April 11, 1917.