The Railroad came about 1865. The Huntington branch of my family came to Maxwell in 1872. Arthur Merrick and L.E. Story came in 1897, when they opened 'W.H. Merrick & Co.' a general store which is still owned by the family. It stands in the same spot where it was reassembled after being moved from Fort McPherson a few years earlier.

'The Loggy'

The loggy is the oldest building in the county.
It was built at Fort McPherson
before the railroad came to town.
The railroad came through around 1865.

The building was bought and moved
into town in 1897.
The square logs were numbered
and the building was totally disassembled.
It was reassembled where it still stands today.

It has been stuccoed over on the outside,
but the logs can still be seen from the inside
if you know where to look.
The newly moved building was bought
for a general store.

1902

Edna Laura Merrick Story with three of her six children.

Edna lived in Maxwell. She took the train to Kearney
where this photograph was taken. Her parents
William H. Merrick and his wife Mary Susan Grindle Merrick,
lived in Amhurst, Nebraska, near Kearney. They owned a
store there. Louis E. Story's mother, Melinda Deyo Story,
brother Arthur and sister Alice also had a store and
post office near Kearney. Before her marriage Edna
taught school.

First Baptist Church
Maxwell, Nebraska
Built c. 1903
Roof is still under construction in this picture.

How the town of Maxwell was Named

There are several stories as to how the town was named.
Here is one:
James Maxwell was an officer for the Union Pacific Railroad. The railroad named most of the towns along the railway. It is told in our family that the railroad named the town after James Maxwell.

The Book 'Perkey's Nebraska Place Names' on page 27 reads:
'Maxwell. Peak population (1940), 480.
Post office name changed from McPherson May 15, 1882.
Town named for an official of the Union Pacific Railroad.'

My Uncle Jerod, as town historian, received a letter from the
Maxwell Family looking for information on the town.

There is a mention of James Maxwell in a Union Pacific RR Book.

The Max's well story has been told so many times that people take it as history.

"The voices of the past are like leaves that settle to the ground. They make the earth rich and thick, so that new fruit will come forth every summer."

-Chief Dan George-

"We are the children of many sires, and every drop of blood in us in its turn betrays its ancestor."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson-

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its themes, to revive its echoes and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.

-Sir Winston Spencer Churchill-