BIOGRAPHY OF HARRIET MAXWELL CONVERSE 



To the late Mrs Harriet Maxwell Converse, the State of New 

 York owes a debt of lasting gratitude. The reason is apparent 

 to even the superficial visitor to the Indian collections in the State 

 Museum where in striking prominence are to be seen hundreds of 

 rare and priceless relics of the aborigines of New York, her gift to 

 the State in memory of her father, Hon. Thomas Maxwell of Elmira. 

 Her unselfish work in preserving the record and relics of the first 

 claimants of New York State has resulted in preserving much of 

 immense value for students of culture, history and ethnography. 

 Her great interest in the Indians and her wonderful influence with 

 them made it possible for her to mingle with them as a trusted and 

 beloved friend. Indeed so greatly did the Indians esteem her that 

 they bestowed upon her every possible honor within the gift of the 

 clan and the council, hailed her as a sister and a mother, called her 

 Ya-ie-wa-noh, She Who Watches Over Us, adopted her as a 

 member of the nation and gave her a seat in their councils. There 

 is a very great difference between merely receding a compli- 

 mentary name and an actual national adoption. 



The life story of so remarkable a woman can not fail of perti- 

 nent interest from any viewpoint. Mrs Converse was not a 

 woman who was given to saying much concerning herself and 

 although the writer was associated with her more or less from 

 his childhood, the notes which he has relating to her earlier 

 history are few and fragmentary, but from them and from the 

 records which he has at hand, a brief account of her life's history 

 has been prepared. 



To get at the ancestral elements which contributed to the con- 

 struction of her mind and personality, we must go to the Highlands 

 of Scotland where in the romantic days of history, " the Maxwells 

 maintained the splendor of their name in the baronial towers of 

 Caerlaverock." A splendid name was that of Maxwell, and proudly 

 borne by brave Highlanders from days of old. 



Alexander Maxwell. Back in the early years of the i8th cen- 

 tury, in the Scottish valley of the Nithe was born Alexander Max- 

 well. He married Jane McBratney, she too a Highlander, and of 

 the clan McPherson. The charm of America had reached the 

 ears of Alexander Maxwell and in June 1770 he and his 

 good wife set sail, from the port of Partick, for the new 

 world where adventure and fortune, good or ill, awaited every 

 daring pioneer. But summer seas are not always smooth and June 



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