Memorial service on Saturday for Lake County woman with rich family history

Caroline E. Maxey’s family tree reads like a who’s who of American history.

The longtime Lake County woman’s grandfather was former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Charles Gates Dawes.

Another ancestor, William Dawes, rode with Paul Revere on April 18, 1775, to warn the Massachusetts colonists of the British advance at the start of the Revolutionary War. Maxey’s great-grandfather Rufus Dawes was a Union officer during the Civil War who fought at Gettysburg.

And the first William Dawes was among the first Puritans who came to America, settling here in 1628.

Maxey, 89, died Feb. 21 of pneumonia at the Lake Forest Place retirement community. She had been in declining health, daughter Marian McNair said.

A memorial service is set for 3 p.m. Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church, 219 W. Maple Ave., Libertyville.

Born Caroline E. Ericson in Evanston, Maxey and her family lived in Barrington before the Great Depression.

Her grandfather served as vice president from 1925 to 1929 under President Calvin Coolidge. An Army officer during World War I who rose to the rank of brigadier general, Dawes helped create a German reparations proposal called the Dawes Plan.

For that effort, Dawes shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.

But Maxey didn’t talk much about her famous grandfather, McNair recalled.

“It wasn’t discussed,” McNair said. “I know it sounds strange, but that’s how it was in those times. People in power tried to protect their families.”

After the 1929 stock market crash, the Ericson family moved to Libertyville and a home called Loghaven, a log-and-stone manor house that still stands on Oak Spring Road, McNair said.

A move to a farmhouse on St. Mary’s Road followed.

Maxey graduated from Roycemore School, a private prep school in Evanston, in 1941. She lived at her grandparents’ historic Evanston home during school, McNair said.

She then attended Mount Vernon Junior College in Washington, D.C., but only for one year.

Maxey’s parents cut her college education short because of World War II, McNair said.

“They felt that is wasn’t safe in Washington,” McNair said.

After working as a secretary, Maxey married the first of her three husbands and left the workforce.

In the ensuing years, Maxey supported the First Presbyterian Church, the Humane Society of the United States and other organizations. The Evanston History Center, located in the former Dawes home in Evanston, remained a favorite cause.

“She was instrumental in how we interpret the house and how we tell the story of the house,” said Eden Juron Pearlman, executive director of the history center. “Her firsthand knowledge was invaluable to us.”

For many years, Maxey and members of her family presented the General Pershing Sword to outstanding cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Charles Dawes created the award in honor of his friend the legendary Gen. John J. Pershing, who led the U.S. forces during World War I.

“(She) felt it would have made her grandfather proud,” McNair said.

The prize no longer is awarded.

In her later years, Maxey lived in Lake Forest.

In addition to McNair, Maxey’s survivors include two additional daughters, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the Lakeside Cemetery Renovation Fund, P.O. Box 500, Libertyville, Ill., 60048.