Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1913-1920
Biography of Josephine Hamilton Maxim, 1866-1936
By Courtney Fyler, Undergraduate Student, Central Connecticut State University
Suffragist, education and health advocate
Josephine Hamilton was born on March 18, 1866 in Hagerstown, Maryland. She was the daughter of Maryland governor William T. Hamilton and Clara Holmes Hamilton. She married Hiram P. Maxim in 1905. They had two children, Harry H. Maxim and Percy Maxim. Josephine and her husband resided in Hartford for the majority of their married lives.
Josephine was an active member in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She traveled frequently, even applying for a passport that was issued to her at the age of 52, in 1919. After securing a passport, Josephine travelled quite frequently back and forth between New York and Southampton, England.
Josephine was one of the first Connecticut women named a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in 1920. At that time she was recognized as a member of the Board of Education in Hartford, CT and also served in 1919-1920 as the Corresponding Secretary and sat on the executive committee for the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. In that capacity she contributed to the Association's support of the war effort. After 1920, she served as Vice-President of the Connecticut League of Women Voters. In addition, Josephine was very active in her community; she was a member of the Hartford Board of Health and the Hartford Public Welfare Commission. She also ran as a candidate for the state senate as a member of the Democratic Party in 1920.
Josephine and her husband both died in 1936 in Hartford. They were both buried in her family's burial plot in Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland.
Sources:
Josephine Hamilton Maxim's political career is documented in the Hartford Courant newspaper. Maxim's travel history is recorded by the National Archives and Records Administration (Washington, D.C.) in the passport applications and arrival records. See also Carole Nichols, Votes and More for Women: Suffrage and After in Connecticut (New York: Haworth Press, 1983), p. 77.
JHM death record, February 1936. Accessed online in Ancestry Library Edition.