CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Samuel Maxwell

American politician (1825-1901)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ2218630
Source-derived summary

Samuel Maxwell (May 20, 1825 – February 11, 1901) was a Populist politician in the U.S. state of Nebraska.

Born in Lodi, New York, on May 20, 1825, he moved with his parents to Michigan in 1844. He taught school, farmed, and studied law. He moved to the Nebraska Territory settling in Cass County, Nebraska, resumed farming. He returned to Michigan to complete his law studies and passed the bar in 1859. He returned to Nebraska the same year and set up practice in Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

He became interested in Nebraskan Territorial politics. He was a delegate to the first Republican Territorial convention. He was a representative to the 1859, 1860, 1864, and 1865 Territorial house of representatives. He was a delegate to the Territorial constitutional conventions in 1864 and 1866 when Nebraska wrote its state's constitution.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Samuel Maxwell” as american politician (1825-1901). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Samuel, Maxwell and American.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1825, 1901, 1844, 1859—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Samuel, Maxwell and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Samuel Maxwell”, the useful work is to connect “american politician (1825-1901)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2218630. The first chronological checks are 1825, 1901, 1844 and 1859.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Samuel Maxwell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Samuel Maxwell primary sources, Samuel Maxwell archive and Samuel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Samuel Maxwell”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Samuel Maxwell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.