The History of Max, Nebraska
[Note: Click on any of the drop down tabs under the "Max History" tab, to see more about the history of Max]
[Note: Click on any of the drop down tabs under the "Max History" tab, to see more about the history of Max]
In 1858, the ship Othello pulled into New York harbor. Aboard was 27 year old Maxime M. Monvoisin from Paris, France. Monvoisin had left his native France in search of a new life in America. Little did he realize at that time that in just little more than 20 years time, a small town in southwestern Nebraska would be named after him. A town that still bears his name after more than 120 years later.
After arriving in New York, Max Monvoisin began following his trade, that of furrier and taxidermist, and before long fell in love with and married a local girl. Although her name has been lost to history, the marriage did produce a daughter, Addie, born December 1867. Soon after Addie’s birth, however, Max’s wife passed away.
Not long after, Max realized that his business, and thus his finances, would benefit greatly if he were to relocate nearer to the source of his raw materials. This realization proved to be the impetus of his move west to Omaha, Nebraska with his young daughter Addie. After arriving in Omaha, Monvoisin opened a shop and soon earned a reputation as an expert in his field. Although he was apparently well on his way to becoming a successful entrepreneur, he also developed an insatiable urge to visit the wild and wooly west to trap and hunt. Before long he arranged a buffalo hunt along the Upper Republican River with his friend, S.D. O’Neill.
Although the exact date of this hunt is unknown, O’Neill’s son, Harry O’Neill, believed it was perhaps in 1877. At this time, the area was under the control of cattlemen and ranches, so Monvoisin and O’Neill decided to go on to Long Point, which is a highland ridge running south, and which breaks off toward an area known as the Barrens, and which is just west of Akron, Colorado; with Fremont Butte to the north, and Cap Rock to the south (the only well known landmarks).
Up to this point, the hunt had yet to be successful, but Max later reported that he had enjoyed himself immensely. The two men, however, decided to call the hunt, and return to civilization. As they neared Morgan Flats, they decided to separate, with Monvoisin following the Smokey Hill route and taking the railroad back to Omaha. O’Neill, perhaps deciding to try his luck just a bit longer, however, found himself caught in a raging blizzard. With no shelter other than the south side of a hill, O’Neill stacked his equipment around him as a makeshift wall and covered himself with what clothing and horse blankets he had. The wet snow quickly piled up on his equipment and created an ice and snow shelter, with O’Neill inside.
After the storm subsided, O’Neill found his horses frozen and dead. After struggling through deep drifts for three days, and almost completely snow blind, he heard the whistle of a train and made his way toward the familiar sound. Luck must have been with him, as the train crew spotted him, stopped the train, and brought him back to civilization.
When the weather finally permitted, Max Monvoisin and O’Neill made a return trip to the Flats in order to retrieve their cached equipment. Wolves, however, had managed to locate the equipment first, and had chewed up the leather from their saddles and harness. In spite of this, Max had become enamored with the Republican River Valley, and upon returning to Omaha, he began making plans to return to that area. In later years, when Max would relate the story of this trip and his subsequent finding of his and O’Neill’s damaged goods, would simply shrug his shoulders and say with his thick French accent, “and zat was zee ’ell of it!”
Two of Monvoisin’s friends who happened to live near him in Omaha, were A.Hiram Ostrom and Hoxie Groesbeck, both were employed in the B&M Railroad shop. Monvoisin regaled the men with stories of the verdant Republican valley, with its abundant grass, game and vegetation. Before long all three men were longing for a trip to the valley, and in 1879, the three men undertook a trip there, and filed for three adjacent homesteads. After returning to Omaha, the three families began making preparations to move.
In the early Spring of 1880, the three pioneering families comprised of Max Monvoisin and his young daughter Addie – age 15, A. Hiram Ostrom and his family (Mrs. Ostrom, daughter Viola – age 16, son Albert – age 14, and Hiram’s mother – “Grandma” Lavina Ostrom), and Hoxie Groesbeck and his wife, all loaded their possessions onto the B&M Railroad “Emigrant Cars”, and began their journey to a new home in Southwest Nebraska. When they arrived at the end of the line in Arapahoe, Nebraska, they transferred their belongings into wagons and completed their journey to the valley, and their new homes. Although they were not the first settlers in the valley, they were the first settlers to file for strictly agricultural purposes. A portion of the land upon which these three “first families of Max” filed eventually became the town of Max.
This was cattle country, and there were several large outfits in Southwestern Nebraska at that time. A common practice among ranchers of that period, was to have their cowboys file on homesteads. Not that they would live there (in spite of the small shacks they erected), but only to secure the water rights for the ranchers they worked for. Also common to that time period were strong feelings of animosity between cattlemen and farmers (whom they derisively called “sodbusters”). Such feelings of animosity did not exist between the three new families and the local ranchers, however, and the extended one another such courtesies as were common among long lived friends. This same friendly attitude still exists to this day and is quite common throughout this area.
The first home built by Max Monvoisin for himself and his daughter Addie, was far from extravagant. In fact it was nothing more than an area cut out of a cliff and covered with tree limbs, mud and grass for an outer wall. It was a snug comfortable home that kept its occupants warm and dry. Temporary homes such as these (known as cut-banks) were common among homesteaders and pioneers in the West, and they served their purpose well until a more permanent structure could be built. Not long after settling into his “cut-bank”, Max set about building a more suitable home. Not of sod, however, as many were, but rather of adobe bricks.
A star mail route started in 1879 between the town of Culbertson and Jacob Haigler’s ranch. Service was bi-weekly. There was no service directly to what would become the town of Max, and so the ranchers of this area, and also the three new families, had to travel quite a distance to retrieve their mail. This problem was solved when the mail carriers began dropping off mail at Monvoisin’s cut-bank for those living in the area. Max would loosely sort the mail, and the other two families, as well as cowboys from the local ranches, would come and pick up their mail. This practice continued when Max built his adobe home, and on March 28, 1882 (after almost two years of handling the mail), Max Monvoisin was officially named Postmaster. Although there was as yet no town, the Postal Service noted that the mail would be picked up and dropped off at “Max”. Whether this was the result of a Postal Service bureaucrat who did not understand that the mail was being delivered to a private residence, or simply a dropping of the letter “S” (Max’s) is unknown, but does cause one to speculate.
At that time, in 1882, the nearest neighbor to the three new families, was almost four miles away. And although the Indian raids had stopped less than three years previous, it was not completely unusual to see Indians travelling through the area. With the aforementioned raids still fresh in their minds, the locals were understandably wary of these travelers. Monvoisin himself often told of the time he was setting traps down on the river, when he looked up and saw a small group of Indians watching him intently. Unsure of their intentions, and hoping the Indians did not realize that he had spotted them, Max did his best to remain calm and keep busy setting his traps. After what surely seemed like an eternity, the Indians left and continued on their way. Of this encounter, Max would later say, “I never spent so much time in setting traps!”
Near the end of 1882, and into 1883, other settlers began to arrive in the area. The Lincoln Land Company recognized the need for a town in the area. Rather than choosing and area where the Monvoisin, Ostrom and Grosebeck had settled, the company decided on an area near Indian Creek that was a few miles away. Perhaps the reason for this was that in 1881, the railroad had built a loading chute for the Circle ranch, as well as a section house, and it appeared that the location would be a perfect place to start a townsite.
In 1885, L.U. Parsons, who had previously settled on the Circle range in 1884, erected a 24’x24’ hotel near the section house and he christened the burgeoning town Sandwich (allegedly because the town was sandwiched between the Parsons ranch and the Circle ranch. The town grew and prospered, and it appeared to all that the town was there to stay. In the meanwhile, the town of Max was still in its infancy and its growth was stunted at best. This would, however, not remain the case.
With many of the early towns in the old west, the two essential anchors that held ensured their success, were the railroad and the post office. And although Sandwich had both a loading chute and a freight service (courtesy of the B&M railroad), it did not have a post office, and as Max Monvoisin had already been appointed Postmaster, the postal service was reluctant to appoint another one for a town only a few miles away.
The mail arrived bi-weekly aboard the train, and was dropped off at Sandwich. As the post office was in Max, however, young Bert Ostrom would ride his horse into Sandwich, retrieve the mail, and bring it back to Max Monvoisin’s post office. He kept this up until 1885. The town of Sandwich also suffered from more than just the lack of a post office. Being situated where it was, land (about 40 acres worth) was required by the Lincoln Land company who was planning to expand the site into a full-fledged town, rather than a small cluster of buildings which is what it was. The Circle refused to sell any land to the land company, and L.U Parsons also refused to relinquish any as well. Hiram Ostrom, however, recognized the opportunity being presented by the land company, and offered 40 acres of his land for a town site.
The Lincoln Land company took Ostrom up on his offer, and one fine morning the residents of Sandwich awoke to see their section house being skidded by rail to Max, and that was the end of the town of Sandwich. Several other buildings were moved to Max as well, and Parsons moved his hotel back onto his ranch. The town of Sandwich was officially declared vacant on May 16, 1887, only two years after it was born, and all because, as Bert Ostrom later said, “But for two stubborn old cusses – Billy Wilson refusing to deed 40 acres of cheap pasture for a public town site, and L.U. parsons who surveyed a town site in 1885 and refused to sell salt grass land to Lincoln Land & Investment Company at a reasonable price, things might have been different. Max grew and Sandwich disappeared. Only the cottonwood tree survives, and its days are numbered. Indian Creek is sucked near dry by the sprinkler systems. Its grape vines, large as a child’s wrist, are dead, as are currents and gooseberries, plum thickets. And where are the jams and jellies of yesteryear? Nor does the valley play host to the school and Sunday school picnics that were a joy for us all.”
The town of Max, on the other hand, grew like there was no tomorrow. The Burlington began providing passenger service to Max, as well as mail service. A siding was built for freight, and an old wooden boxcar served as a depot. Max Monvoisin deeded 40 acres of land to the Lincoln Land company, and then sold another 40 acres for the town site. W.G. “Doc” Price and C.E. Ames moved their drug store and general merchandise store from Sandwich to Max, M.M. Brumley brought his hardware store, Hallack & Howard brought their lumber yard and construction business, Bishop & Douglas came with their livery and feed store, and Hiram Ostrom donated 17 acres located on the north west corner of the town to be used as a park. Before long, Max had grown well beyond what Sandwich had once been.
“Doc” Price and his family lived in Max for many years, in the same building he brought from Sandwich. Later he became the county superintendent of schools, and eventually he sold the building to the Stoutsenberger family who served meals there, and “Doc” Price moved on to California.
By 1885, Max Monvoisin decided to stop using his home for a post office, and he built a small frame post office on the piece of land where the old Krotter filling station now stands. This was the first building in Max to be used exclusively as a post office. As wallpaper was not available to Monvoisin, he papered the walls of his new post office with old newspapers. Among them was a newspaper that carried the report of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The old post office was not only a place to pick up one’s mail, but also a place to visit and catch up on the news of the area. Being a first class taxidermist, Monvoisin always had a few examples of his work on display. In 1936, in order to make way for the then new Krotter station, Monvoisin’s frame post office was moved to the Boyd Raichart farm south of Max.
Max Monvoisin was not only the first postmaster of Max, Nebraska, but he was also a professional furrier and taxidermist, both occupations having been his principle business prior to establishing himself in the Republican valley. Monvoisin’s work was well known throughout the area, and in 1887 he presented a robe crafted from the pelts of grey wolves to Captain A.L. Emerson of Wano, Kansas. Monvoisin also kept many of his creations on display around his home, and even on top of it. At one time he had a stuffed rabbit on the roof of his home, as well as a stuffed Sandhill crane, a duck, a goose, and a skunk.
He was also known to keep some of his displays in his post office, and two of those displays were quite popular among local residents. These two displays were a stuffed rattlesnake posed to appear as if it was ready to strike, which he kept on the floor near the door in order to surprise his customers. The other “display” was not something that Monvoisin himself had prepared, nor was it something that was very common. It was, in fact, an Indian scalp. Monvoisin’s son-in-law, Jeff Gallagher had had a run in with a hostile Indian in 1878, and he kept the scalp as a reminder of the incident. He later gave it to Monvoisin who in turn kept it in his post office.
The story is told of a local cowboy, a character who was known as “Buttermilk Bill”, decided to pay a visit to Monvoisin to view the scalp. Bill, who had evidently been partaking in something a little stronger than buttermilk that day, entered the post office and the first thing he saw was Monvoisin’s stuffed rattlesnake poised to strike. Old Buttermilk took one giant leap and landed atop the post office counter (two boards laid across a pair of saw horses), and he immediately pulled both of his six-guns and started shooting at Monvoisin’s masterpiece, all while Monvoisin was yelling “Quit zee shootin’! Zee snake, he don’t bite by damn for it!”
Eventually someone complained to the postal inspector, and Monvoisin was ordered to remove his “displays” from the post office. Although he did remove the scalp, the snake remained, although not near the door!
In May 1887, seven years after the settlement was founded, the town site was finally surveyed, and in August of that year, a petition was made by the Lincoln Land company which established it was the owner of all land upon which the town sat. In addition to the depot, section house, and stock yards, the town of Max also boasted several homes and businesses including “Doc” Price’s drug store, a second hardware store opened by Max Monvoisin, J.R. King’s two-story frame store (later owned by Jacob Rickard) and a similar building across the street from it built by Chauncey Cooper and managed by E.E. Ames and B.C. Gifford. By 1887 F.M. Tewksbury has also erected a general store, the Gilbert Blacksmith shop and the grain elevator were also up and running. Eventually a good number of the old buildings in Max had either burned down, were torn down, or were moved, and very few of them exist today.
After arriving in New York, Max Monvoisin began following his trade, that of furrier and taxidermist, and before long fell in love with and married a local girl. Although her name has been lost to history, the marriage did produce a daughter, Addie, born December 1867. Soon after Addie’s birth, however, Max’s wife passed away.
Not long after, Max realized that his business, and thus his finances, would benefit greatly if he were to relocate nearer to the source of his raw materials. This realization proved to be the impetus of his move west to Omaha, Nebraska with his young daughter Addie. After arriving in Omaha, Monvoisin opened a shop and soon earned a reputation as an expert in his field. Although he was apparently well on his way to becoming a successful entrepreneur, he also developed an insatiable urge to visit the wild and wooly west to trap and hunt. Before long he arranged a buffalo hunt along the Upper Republican River with his friend, S.D. O’Neill.
Although the exact date of this hunt is unknown, O’Neill’s son, Harry O’Neill, believed it was perhaps in 1877. At this time, the area was under the control of cattlemen and ranches, so Monvoisin and O’Neill decided to go on to Long Point, which is a highland ridge running south, and which breaks off toward an area known as the Barrens, and which is just west of Akron, Colorado; with Fremont Butte to the north, and Cap Rock to the south (the only well known landmarks).
Up to this point, the hunt had yet to be successful, but Max later reported that he had enjoyed himself immensely. The two men, however, decided to call the hunt, and return to civilization. As they neared Morgan Flats, they decided to separate, with Monvoisin following the Smokey Hill route and taking the railroad back to Omaha. O’Neill, perhaps deciding to try his luck just a bit longer, however, found himself caught in a raging blizzard. With no shelter other than the south side of a hill, O’Neill stacked his equipment around him as a makeshift wall and covered himself with what clothing and horse blankets he had. The wet snow quickly piled up on his equipment and created an ice and snow shelter, with O’Neill inside.
After the storm subsided, O’Neill found his horses frozen and dead. After struggling through deep drifts for three days, and almost completely snow blind, he heard the whistle of a train and made his way toward the familiar sound. Luck must have been with him, as the train crew spotted him, stopped the train, and brought him back to civilization.
When the weather finally permitted, Max Monvoisin and O’Neill made a return trip to the Flats in order to retrieve their cached equipment. Wolves, however, had managed to locate the equipment first, and had chewed up the leather from their saddles and harness. In spite of this, Max had become enamored with the Republican River Valley, and upon returning to Omaha, he began making plans to return to that area. In later years, when Max would relate the story of this trip and his subsequent finding of his and O’Neill’s damaged goods, would simply shrug his shoulders and say with his thick French accent, “and zat was zee ’ell of it!”
Two of Monvoisin’s friends who happened to live near him in Omaha, were A.Hiram Ostrom and Hoxie Groesbeck, both were employed in the B&M Railroad shop. Monvoisin regaled the men with stories of the verdant Republican valley, with its abundant grass, game and vegetation. Before long all three men were longing for a trip to the valley, and in 1879, the three men undertook a trip there, and filed for three adjacent homesteads. After returning to Omaha, the three families began making preparations to move.
In the early Spring of 1880, the three pioneering families comprised of Max Monvoisin and his young daughter Addie – age 15, A. Hiram Ostrom and his family (Mrs. Ostrom, daughter Viola – age 16, son Albert – age 14, and Hiram’s mother – “Grandma” Lavina Ostrom), and Hoxie Groesbeck and his wife, all loaded their possessions onto the B&M Railroad “Emigrant Cars”, and began their journey to a new home in Southwest Nebraska. When they arrived at the end of the line in Arapahoe, Nebraska, they transferred their belongings into wagons and completed their journey to the valley, and their new homes. Although they were not the first settlers in the valley, they were the first settlers to file for strictly agricultural purposes. A portion of the land upon which these three “first families of Max” filed eventually became the town of Max.
This was cattle country, and there were several large outfits in Southwestern Nebraska at that time. A common practice among ranchers of that period, was to have their cowboys file on homesteads. Not that they would live there (in spite of the small shacks they erected), but only to secure the water rights for the ranchers they worked for. Also common to that time period were strong feelings of animosity between cattlemen and farmers (whom they derisively called “sodbusters”). Such feelings of animosity did not exist between the three new families and the local ranchers, however, and the extended one another such courtesies as were common among long lived friends. This same friendly attitude still exists to this day and is quite common throughout this area.
The first home built by Max Monvoisin for himself and his daughter Addie, was far from extravagant. In fact it was nothing more than an area cut out of a cliff and covered with tree limbs, mud and grass for an outer wall. It was a snug comfortable home that kept its occupants warm and dry. Temporary homes such as these (known as cut-banks) were common among homesteaders and pioneers in the West, and they served their purpose well until a more permanent structure could be built. Not long after settling into his “cut-bank”, Max set about building a more suitable home. Not of sod, however, as many were, but rather of adobe bricks.
A star mail route started in 1879 between the town of Culbertson and Jacob Haigler’s ranch. Service was bi-weekly. There was no service directly to what would become the town of Max, and so the ranchers of this area, and also the three new families, had to travel quite a distance to retrieve their mail. This problem was solved when the mail carriers began dropping off mail at Monvoisin’s cut-bank for those living in the area. Max would loosely sort the mail, and the other two families, as well as cowboys from the local ranches, would come and pick up their mail. This practice continued when Max built his adobe home, and on March 28, 1882 (after almost two years of handling the mail), Max Monvoisin was officially named Postmaster. Although there was as yet no town, the Postal Service noted that the mail would be picked up and dropped off at “Max”. Whether this was the result of a Postal Service bureaucrat who did not understand that the mail was being delivered to a private residence, or simply a dropping of the letter “S” (Max’s) is unknown, but does cause one to speculate.
At that time, in 1882, the nearest neighbor to the three new families, was almost four miles away. And although the Indian raids had stopped less than three years previous, it was not completely unusual to see Indians travelling through the area. With the aforementioned raids still fresh in their minds, the locals were understandably wary of these travelers. Monvoisin himself often told of the time he was setting traps down on the river, when he looked up and saw a small group of Indians watching him intently. Unsure of their intentions, and hoping the Indians did not realize that he had spotted them, Max did his best to remain calm and keep busy setting his traps. After what surely seemed like an eternity, the Indians left and continued on their way. Of this encounter, Max would later say, “I never spent so much time in setting traps!”
Near the end of 1882, and into 1883, other settlers began to arrive in the area. The Lincoln Land Company recognized the need for a town in the area. Rather than choosing and area where the Monvoisin, Ostrom and Grosebeck had settled, the company decided on an area near Indian Creek that was a few miles away. Perhaps the reason for this was that in 1881, the railroad had built a loading chute for the Circle ranch, as well as a section house, and it appeared that the location would be a perfect place to start a townsite.
In 1885, L.U. Parsons, who had previously settled on the Circle range in 1884, erected a 24’x24’ hotel near the section house and he christened the burgeoning town Sandwich (allegedly because the town was sandwiched between the Parsons ranch and the Circle ranch. The town grew and prospered, and it appeared to all that the town was there to stay. In the meanwhile, the town of Max was still in its infancy and its growth was stunted at best. This would, however, not remain the case.
With many of the early towns in the old west, the two essential anchors that held ensured their success, were the railroad and the post office. And although Sandwich had both a loading chute and a freight service (courtesy of the B&M railroad), it did not have a post office, and as Max Monvoisin had already been appointed Postmaster, the postal service was reluctant to appoint another one for a town only a few miles away.
The mail arrived bi-weekly aboard the train, and was dropped off at Sandwich. As the post office was in Max, however, young Bert Ostrom would ride his horse into Sandwich, retrieve the mail, and bring it back to Max Monvoisin’s post office. He kept this up until 1885. The town of Sandwich also suffered from more than just the lack of a post office. Being situated where it was, land (about 40 acres worth) was required by the Lincoln Land company who was planning to expand the site into a full-fledged town, rather than a small cluster of buildings which is what it was. The Circle refused to sell any land to the land company, and L.U Parsons also refused to relinquish any as well. Hiram Ostrom, however, recognized the opportunity being presented by the land company, and offered 40 acres of his land for a town site.
The Lincoln Land company took Ostrom up on his offer, and one fine morning the residents of Sandwich awoke to see their section house being skidded by rail to Max, and that was the end of the town of Sandwich. Several other buildings were moved to Max as well, and Parsons moved his hotel back onto his ranch. The town of Sandwich was officially declared vacant on May 16, 1887, only two years after it was born, and all because, as Bert Ostrom later said, “But for two stubborn old cusses – Billy Wilson refusing to deed 40 acres of cheap pasture for a public town site, and L.U. parsons who surveyed a town site in 1885 and refused to sell salt grass land to Lincoln Land & Investment Company at a reasonable price, things might have been different. Max grew and Sandwich disappeared. Only the cottonwood tree survives, and its days are numbered. Indian Creek is sucked near dry by the sprinkler systems. Its grape vines, large as a child’s wrist, are dead, as are currents and gooseberries, plum thickets. And where are the jams and jellies of yesteryear? Nor does the valley play host to the school and Sunday school picnics that were a joy for us all.”
The town of Max, on the other hand, grew like there was no tomorrow. The Burlington began providing passenger service to Max, as well as mail service. A siding was built for freight, and an old wooden boxcar served as a depot. Max Monvoisin deeded 40 acres of land to the Lincoln Land company, and then sold another 40 acres for the town site. W.G. “Doc” Price and C.E. Ames moved their drug store and general merchandise store from Sandwich to Max, M.M. Brumley brought his hardware store, Hallack & Howard brought their lumber yard and construction business, Bishop & Douglas came with their livery and feed store, and Hiram Ostrom donated 17 acres located on the north west corner of the town to be used as a park. Before long, Max had grown well beyond what Sandwich had once been.
“Doc” Price and his family lived in Max for many years, in the same building he brought from Sandwich. Later he became the county superintendent of schools, and eventually he sold the building to the Stoutsenberger family who served meals there, and “Doc” Price moved on to California.
By 1885, Max Monvoisin decided to stop using his home for a post office, and he built a small frame post office on the piece of land where the old Krotter filling station now stands. This was the first building in Max to be used exclusively as a post office. As wallpaper was not available to Monvoisin, he papered the walls of his new post office with old newspapers. Among them was a newspaper that carried the report of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The old post office was not only a place to pick up one’s mail, but also a place to visit and catch up on the news of the area. Being a first class taxidermist, Monvoisin always had a few examples of his work on display. In 1936, in order to make way for the then new Krotter station, Monvoisin’s frame post office was moved to the Boyd Raichart farm south of Max.
Max Monvoisin was not only the first postmaster of Max, Nebraska, but he was also a professional furrier and taxidermist, both occupations having been his principle business prior to establishing himself in the Republican valley. Monvoisin’s work was well known throughout the area, and in 1887 he presented a robe crafted from the pelts of grey wolves to Captain A.L. Emerson of Wano, Kansas. Monvoisin also kept many of his creations on display around his home, and even on top of it. At one time he had a stuffed rabbit on the roof of his home, as well as a stuffed Sandhill crane, a duck, a goose, and a skunk.
He was also known to keep some of his displays in his post office, and two of those displays were quite popular among local residents. These two displays were a stuffed rattlesnake posed to appear as if it was ready to strike, which he kept on the floor near the door in order to surprise his customers. The other “display” was not something that Monvoisin himself had prepared, nor was it something that was very common. It was, in fact, an Indian scalp. Monvoisin’s son-in-law, Jeff Gallagher had had a run in with a hostile Indian in 1878, and he kept the scalp as a reminder of the incident. He later gave it to Monvoisin who in turn kept it in his post office.
The story is told of a local cowboy, a character who was known as “Buttermilk Bill”, decided to pay a visit to Monvoisin to view the scalp. Bill, who had evidently been partaking in something a little stronger than buttermilk that day, entered the post office and the first thing he saw was Monvoisin’s stuffed rattlesnake poised to strike. Old Buttermilk took one giant leap and landed atop the post office counter (two boards laid across a pair of saw horses), and he immediately pulled both of his six-guns and started shooting at Monvoisin’s masterpiece, all while Monvoisin was yelling “Quit zee shootin’! Zee snake, he don’t bite by damn for it!”
Eventually someone complained to the postal inspector, and Monvoisin was ordered to remove his “displays” from the post office. Although he did remove the scalp, the snake remained, although not near the door!
In May 1887, seven years after the settlement was founded, the town site was finally surveyed, and in August of that year, a petition was made by the Lincoln Land company which established it was the owner of all land upon which the town sat. In addition to the depot, section house, and stock yards, the town of Max also boasted several homes and businesses including “Doc” Price’s drug store, a second hardware store opened by Max Monvoisin, J.R. King’s two-story frame store (later owned by Jacob Rickard) and a similar building across the street from it built by Chauncey Cooper and managed by E.E. Ames and B.C. Gifford. By 1887 F.M. Tewksbury has also erected a general store, the Gilbert Blacksmith shop and the grain elevator were also up and running. Eventually a good number of the old buildings in Max had either burned down, were torn down, or were moved, and very few of them exist today.
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