Clifford Rhea Maddox (1894 - 1965)

Born 18 Sep 1894 in Ohio County, Kentucky, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Catherine Elizabeth (Morgan) Maddox — married 12 Aug 1920 in Brandenburg, Meade, Kentucky, United States

Descendants

Died 6 Nov 1965 at age 71 in Morristown, Morris, New Jersey, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Daphne Maddox [send private message] and Lawrence Hodapp [send private message]

Biography

Clifford Rhea Maddox was born on 18 September 1894 in Beaver Dam, Ohio County, Kentucky, to Collier Tichenor Maddox (1861-1948) and Ella Catherine (Walker) Maddox (1865-1941).^[1][2]

His family had a long history in Ohio County, closely linked to their Baptist religious beliefs. Ancestors of both his parents had joined the Beaver Dam Baptist Church before 1805. His relatives included the revivalists, farmer–preachers, and administrators who had helped spread the faith throughout Ohio County, Kentucky. As membership grew through revivals, they donated the land for new churches.^{[3] [4]} These churches sought to create separatist communities during the first half of the 19th century, as described for the Walton's Creek Baptist Church, which had been founded by his ancestors in 1814 and for which his second great–grandfather Jared Tichenor (1779-1867) served as clerk for 41 years:

It seems that the social, moral, and economic part of the people's lives, as well as the spiritual, was completely centered around the church. Every problem, regardless of tis nature was settled in, through, and by the church. The church made an effort to discipline disorderly members, to correct unscriptural teachings, and to adjust individual differences. This occupied much of the attention of the church. To say that the church was rigid in the enforcement of discipline is to put it mildly....
Discipline was meted out to members for excessive drinking, heresy, fighting, harmful gossip, lying, stealing, cursing, gambling, failure to pay debts, neglecting church attendance, and immoral relations with the opposite sex.^[5]

As the social situation changed during the second half of the 19th century, the goals of these churches changed as well. By the middle of the century, Southern churches had become dedicated to "preserving a biblically supported social order." Following the Civil War, Baptist and other denominations "with one voice proclaimed their loyalty to the Lost Cause."^[6] By the end of the century:

[B]ecause Southern Baptists were so numerous and so singlemindedly committed to traditional forms of evangelical piety, doctrine, and personal ethics, they became, despite their separatism, a major force in the great Protestant campaigns for Prohibition and immigration restriction, as well as in the Fundamentalist assaults on evolution.^[6]

Although "religious liberalism and troublesome scholarship had few champions and no appreciable constituency in the South," the ability to respond to it was hindered by the generally low level of education in the clergy of many demoninations, including the Baptists.^[6] Clifford's grandfather, David Jarrell Kelly Maddox (1836-1904), a farmer-preacher for 45 years, had recognized that the limited "educational advantages" available to him in the schools of his day hindered his avocation as a minister.^[7] Perhaps in recognition of this problem, Clifford's great–grandfather had donated land for a school.^[8]

Clifford and his parents lived with his mother's parents on their farm until he was a teen. His parents also had been raised in three–generation households, where the grandfather/landowner continued to hold responsible church positions until he passed his church responsibilities, and land, onto his children. Clifford's father broke with this pattern. He was a farmer in 1900, but had become a house carpenter by 1910.^{[9] [10]} Although Clifford's parents remained Baptist church members until their deaths, they do not appear to have assumed church leadership roles. However, Clifford's uncles and cousins would continue to be pastors and clerks of Ohio County Baptist churches,^[11] so the closely knit Baptist community in which he was raised makes it likely that he was aware of his family's history when he made his later choices.

Clifford worked to obtain a better education than the eight years obtained by his parents.^[12] He paid the tuition for his primary and secondary education in a private school in Beaver Dam by doing odd jobs.^[13] In 1912, he entered Georgetown College, a small Christian school in Georgetown, Kentucky, that was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. During his four years there, he was active in the Ciceronian Society (rhetoric and debate) and art (providing caricatures of the professors for the yearbook, of which he was the art editor). He graduated in 1916 with a Bachelor of Science, with a focus on psychology.^[14]

For some class during this schooling in Kentucky, he typed a three–page paper, Silent Influences, that used metaphors to describe the moral risks he saw in life and his plan to avoid them:

Unseen causes are like tares sown in the night; we know not where they are, they gain a strong hold upon our actions and life before we know that they exist. Could we pluck the tender sprouts, it would be easy. But often the tares are indistinguishable from the wheat, until they have received a full growth.

The farmer who carefully fans his grain, separating the good from the bad, fully realizes that his reward is greater than the labor expended. By separating the good seeds from the bad at sowing time, his labor is lessened fifty fold at the time of the harvest. Like the wise farmer, am I not benefited by carefully shifting my words and deeds before letting them fall on the rich soil of life? Should I not remove those hurtful actions before they have increased, some fifty and some an hundred fold?^[15]

He served in the Army during World War I from 25 February 1918 to 8 March 1819. Because he knew calculus, he was assigned to the 326th Field Artillery–sailing for France on 9 September 2018 and returning to the U.S. on 15 February 1919. He was discharged as a Corporal.^[1][16][17]

After his discharge, Clifford became the high school superintendent in Brandenberg, Kentucky.^[18]. After his first year, he married another teacher at the school, Catherine Elizabeth (Morgan) Maddox (1896-1954). ^[2][19]. In his letters to her prior to the marriage he expressed his love, but also carefully reviewed the moral and religious expectations of their marriage.^[15] They were married in Brandenburg on 12 August 1920.^[20]

Clifford and Catherine had three children:

• Catherine Elizabeth Maddox (1921-1999)^{[21][22][23][24]}
• Martha Rhea (Maddox) Hodapp (1923-2017)^[21][22]
• Collier Lee Maddox (1930-2001)^[22]

Their first two children were born in Brandenburg, Kentucky, but before Martha Rhea was born in September 1923, Clifford had moved without his family to became the head of the science department at the high school in Whiting, Indiana.^[13]. He taught there for three years while working on his advanced education at the University of Chicago. He received his Masters of Science in 1925 and in July 1926 moved with his family to Harvey, Illinois, to teach at Thornton Township High School.^[25]

After two years at Thornton, he became the supervisor of instruction. He remained an administrator for the rest of his 30 years at Thornton, designing a testing program for eighth–grade students to determined the "track" of classes that students would receive in high school.^[13] At the same time, he continued his education at the University of Chicago, receiving his Ph.D. in 1933.^[13]

Harvey was an industrial area at that time and his children were expected to do well, not only academically, but also comporting themselves as the reliable workers that the school was expected to produce for the community. As one child said, "The goal was not to produce independent thinkers."^[17]. This expectation was reinforced by his and Catherine's decision to join the First Baptist Church of Harvey. As a local school administrator with an advanced education, he became an important member of this church, which attempted to create a community socially separate from the surrounding World.^[17]. Throughout his family's time there, it would prohibit a wide variety of sinful behavior and offer its youth social alternatives to school dances or movies.

The fundamentalist beliefs that this church followed became increasing at odds with the Northern Baptist Convention, and it joined the General Association of Regular Baptists (G.A.R.B.), when it was created out of the larger body of Baptist churches in 1932.^[6]. The church conducted periodical revivals and educational sessions to help members learn the intricasies of premillennial escatology. The Scofield Reference Bible became the preferred religious resource, although its concept of dispensationalism was not preached as often as less structured Interpretations of Biblical Inerrancy

Catherine died in November 1954 and Clifford retired from Thornton at the end of the 1955–1956 school year. He had learned of the need for a well–credentialed, experienced educator such as himself by a college in Cedarville, Illinois, that had been acquired by G.A.R.B. from the Prebyterians,. He visited the campus with his son–in–law and grandson during the year before he retired. Although both son–in–law and grandson noted the deteriorated state of this campus, he believed that it was God's calling that he go there. He became a dean of the school at the start of the 1956 school year.^[17]

Shortly after moving to Cedarville, Clifford married Miriam Boltz, on 25 August 1956.^[26]. He and Catherine had known Miriam and her first husband when the Boltzes were leaders of Jews for Jesus in Milwaukee. While Clifford worked to obtain accreditation for Cedarville College, and temporary alliances with other schools as needed in the interim, Miriam found her niche in the drama and speech programs of the growing school. When Clifford died, the school named a women's dormatory for him; following Miriam's death, her name was added to this dedication.

Clifford died on 6 November 1965 in Morristown, New Jersey. He was visiting the family of his son, Collier Lee Maddox, after attending the annual meeting of the Educational Testing Service in New York City.^{[1][27][24][28]}

On 9 November 1965, Rev. Marvin W. Royse, a former student at Cedarville University, sent a poem to Clifford's family containing Clifford's "illustration of grass and knowledge":

The learning process is like creeping bent,
So sparsely scattered, seems hardly a dent,
Knowledge is the same, as you will find
It grows and grows all the time.
So wait a year, and you will see,
What God's great power can do with thee.^[15]

Clifford appears to have succeeded in his husbandry.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} "United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS1Y-K3X6-P?cc=2968245 : 8 August 2019), > image 1 of 1; citing NARA microfilm publication 76193916 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Bond & marriage affidavit, Meade County Court No. 134 (12 Aug 1920); "Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99SJ-2SZ1?cc=1804888&wc=QD3Q-45L%3A1301089201 : 17 May 2018), 005592353 > image 787 of 1240; citing multiple county clerks, county courts, and historical societies, Kentucky.
3. ↑ Deed Book O, 536 (7 May 1855); "Ohio, Kentucky, United States Records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLX-G86P : August 5, 2021), image 275 of 571; Ohio County (Kentucky). Clerk of the County Court.
4. ↑ Ohio County, Kentucky Deed Book V, 257 (12 May 1870); "Ohio, Kentucky, United States Records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSTP-QP5B : August 12, 2021), image 422 of 576; Ohio County (Kentucky). Clerk of the County Court.
5. ↑ Harold A. Tichenor, Tichenor Families in America (Privately printed 1988) 338-39; https://archive.org/details/tichenorfamilies00tich
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3} Sidney E. Ahlstrom, A Rellgious HIstory of the American People, 673, 696, 725, 913 (New Haven and London, Yale University Press: 1972)
7. ↑ Biographical Sketch of Elder David J. K. Maddox, Battle et al., Kentucky: A History of the State, 975 (Louisville: F. A. Battey Publishing Co. 1885); Family Search Title No. 2674542, Image 1025 of 1118, http://www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/375605
8. ↑ Deed Book R, 391 (23 Jun 1860); "Ohio, Kentucky, United States Records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSTL-NS3G-N : September 7, 2021), image 200 of 328; Ohio County (Kentucky). Clerk of the County Court.
9. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9HS-MHG : accessed 3 November 2015), C T Maddox, Magisterial District 2, Cromwell McHenry, Rockport, Render towns, Ohio, Kentucky, United States; citing sheet 38B, family 723, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,240,546.
10. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M261-N5L : accessed 15 August 2021), C S Maddox in household of P P Walker, Beaver Dam, Ohio, Kentucky, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 117, sheet 2A, family 232, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 498; FHL microfilm 1,374,511.
11. ↑ McDowell A. Fogle, Fogles's Papers: A History of Ohio County, Kentucky, 63–72 (Images 79–88 of 500); accessed 14 Sep 2021; https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/42203-fogle-s-papers-a-history-of-ohio-county-kentucky
12. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7YN-M4X : 9 January 2021), Colin T Madox, Magisterial District 1 Hartford, Ohio, Kentucky, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 92-5, sheet 4A, line 9, family 56, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 1346.
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3} "Walter L. Bielawsi, Personality of the Week," Harvey News Bee, Harvey, Illinois, p.1 (18 Oct 1950)
14. ↑ Profile of Clifford Maddox, Senior Class, Belle of the Blue yearbook, p. 41 (1916).
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1 15.2} Original documents in possession of Lawrence Hodapp, Catonsville, Maryland
16. ↑ Discharge Certificate for Clifford R. Maddox dated 6 July 1922; original in possession of Lawrence Hodapp, Catonsville, Maryland.
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3} Personal conversations of Lawrence Hodapp, Catonsville, Maryland, with C.R. Maddox or with his children or their spouses
18. ↑ "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHP3-N7K : 1 February 2021), Cal T Maddox, 1920.
19. ↑ Obituary for Catherine Maddox, newspaper unidentified
20. ↑ "Kentucky Marriages, 1785-1979," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWY7-PVZ : accessed 3 November 2015), Clifford R. Maddox and Catherine E. Morgan, 12 Aug 1920; citing Mead Kentucky, reference Bk E pgs 310-311; FHL microfilm 390,811.
21. ↑ ^{21.0 21.1} "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSRT-DS7 : accessed 3 November 2015), Clifford R Maddox, Harvey, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 2053, sheet 12A, family 161, line 30, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 416; FHL microfilm 2,340,151.
22. ↑ ^{22.0 22.1 22.2} "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KWWG-GWR : accessed 3 November 2015), Clifford R Maddox, Harvey, Thornton Township, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 16-92, sheet 8A, family 160, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 775.
23. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV8-N2D2 : accessed 3 November 2015), Mrs Elizabeth Maddox Bremer, 1999; Burial, Glen Ellyn, DuPage, Illinois, United States of America, Forest Hill Cemetery; citing record ID 14863827, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
24. ↑ ^{24.0 24.1} Find a Grave. Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=55524430 : accessed 3 Novemer 2015), memorial 55524430, Dr Clifford Rhea Maddox (1894-1965), Cedar Park Cemetery, Calumet Park, Cook County, Illinois.
25. ↑ "Veteran Teachers Bid Farewell to Thornton," clipping from unidentified June 1956 newspaper.
26. ↑ Janice Warren Supplee, "Influence." Cedarville Magazine (Summer 2014): 9 (http://publications.cedarville.edu/cedarvillemagazine/v2i2_summer2014/files/assets/basic-html/page11.html : accessed 3 November 2015).
27. ↑ "Dr. Maddox, Dean Emeritus of Cedarville College, Dies." Obituaries, Xenia (Ohio) Gazette, 8 November 1965, p. 5 Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com/clip/783428/obituary_of_clifford_rhea_maddox : accessed 3 November 2015).
28. ↑ Dr. Maddox died during a trip to attend the Educational Testing Service annual meeting in New York City; Dr. Maddox, ex-Educator in Harvey, Dies, Chicago Tribune (7 Nov 1965).