ANDREW MAXFIELD

Main Cemetery -- Area E
Lot 292 -- Westside

Around 1815 Andrew, his parents, Barnett and Hannah (nee Ostrander) Maxfield, and 2 sisters relocated to Pittsford from Vermont by way of Herkimer, New York. After the move to Pittsford, the family would grow to include 4 more daughters and 2 additional sons; eleven in all! But not really such a large farming family for the time. His father and mother are buried in the Pioneer Burying Ground cemetery at the intersections of Route 64, Stone Road and South Main Street but Andrew is buried here.

Barnett had a farm in Herkimer but he had heard of the growing town of Pittsford which claimed to have very fertile land for growing cash crops and supporting cattle. He moved his family and he established a large farm on the east side of Clover Street and Andrew, when he came of age, was able to purchase a farm and land almost across from it. Both of the farm houses next to the large barns were substantial and remain.

Andrew was very supportive of education for young children and since there was no school on Clover Street as far south as Andrew lived, he donated 2 acres to the town for Pittsford Elementary School Number Seven.

This building was of brick and resembled a number of the earlier school houses. It is no longer standing due to the route of the New York State Thruway which cut through the lands that had belonged to the Maxfield family. We have completely lost just two of our early educational buildings; while some have been converted to homes and do not resemble their original use.

Andrew and his wife raised a family consisting of 1 son and 4 daughters. Two of the girls, Katherine and Caroline, married William Thornell. Katherine died in childbirth and since Caroline had been caring for her sister, William took her for his second wife. She and William raised 4 children who never married, and stayed on in the house on Thornell Road and worked the farm until it was sold to the Heath family.

There were very few men in the extended Maxfield families and, when the women married, they assumed their husbands names. Therefore, there are no families bearing the name of the original family of Maxfield; however, there are descendants.