Joshua P. Maddox

Maddox, like many other brewers of his day, was involved in a wide variety of careers. He spent much of his young life in Belfast, where his father, Caleb, worked as a rigger. By 1860, at the age of 26, Maddox (spelled in the census as “Maddocks”) was working as a rigger himself and lived with his wife Susan and his four-year-old son Sanford. Ten years later, it appears that Maddox remarried, adopting Laura, his new wife Anna’s 17-year-old daughter.

In 1875, he and his family moved to Portland and he continued to work as a rigger until at least 1877. In an interesting blip on the record, it seems that he may have briefly worked as a clairvoyant physician in Portland in 1879. In the 1880 census, he is listed as a pedlar in Portland. His daughter Cheslina (curiously the first entry with her name as Laura steps out of the picture) and her husband (a master mariner by the name of John F. Foss) were living with the family.

By 1883, Maddox was working as a clerk at a grocery in Portland, where he is believed to have brewed some beer on the side. In 1885, it appears that he followed his calling towards brewing and worked as a saloon operator at 27 India Street in Portland for about a year before he moved with his family to Lewiston. Maddox arrived on the brewing scene in Lewiston in 1886, but only is listed as a brewer for about two years. He was located at 197 Main Street.

By 1900, he changed occupations and locations once again and is listed as a pedlar (for the first time in 20 years) in Westbrook in the census. By 1910, it appears that his wife Anna passed away and he is listed in that year’s census as living in Portland with his son Sanford A. Maddox.

Locations are true to 19th-century street addresses, not current numbering.