Maurice Wilson Laxton was born on March 15, 1896, in Lenoir, North Carolina. Laxton was an assistant superintendent of an oil mill for the Farmville Oil & Fertilizer Co., in Farmville, North Carolina, when he registered for the draft (World War I) in June 1917. He was subsequently inducted into the service in May 1918 and served with the 156th Depot Brigade and the 306th Field Signal Battalion. He was deployed overseas from June 1918 to June 1919 and was honorably discharged on June 27, 1919. Laxton died in Idaho Springs, Colorado, on May 26, 1921.