"Macville" and R.R. McLeod

The above photo is at the Presbyterian Church with R.R. McLeod's coach and team. The men standing in front left to right are: R. R. McLeod, Angus Murray and "Doc" Power.

The little hamlet now known as Maxville located in the Flint Creek Valley on Boulder Creek was originally named Flint Spur on my 1895 Rand, McNally and Co. map. It then was called Flint City according to the October 13, 1911 Mail and was to be re-named Hennessy after it had been laid out and surveyed by V.O. Eastland. “The town site is now being platted and will shortly be filed with the office of the Clerk of Court in the city where lots will soon be for sale.” The property was owned by R. R.. McLeod and he believed these plots would make suitable places to build houses and businesses that would be operating due to the extensive mining in that area. The town would be “located from the railroad tract to the county road.” 

Apparently, by 1912 the residents decided to name it after R.R. McLeod when they applied for a post office and the application for Macville was mistakenly recorded as Maxville. The first Postmaster was Henry Bauer. Research does not reveal any other references to the town ever being called Hennessy. 

Robert Ross MacLeod, most often referred to as R.R. , was born August 15, 1858 in Cape Briton, Nova Scotia and immigrated to America either in 1879 or 1880. He married Miss Christina McLennan daughter of Duncan and Janette McArthur McLennan on March 13 1887 in Butte and she then returned to Nova Scotia for one year. The couple located in Philipsburg on her return. Their second child, Robert D. was born in August 1891 and died 19 days later on September 14th. His headstone, a marble lamb laying on a scroll, is located in Block 17, Lot 21, Grave 7 at the Philipsburg Cemetery. 

By January 1896, R.R. was the proprietor of The Rock Creek Stage which ran from Bonita to the mines in Quigley and in July the stage was held up by two masked men and robbed the driver of $35.00. In February the Mail announced that R.R. had a contract hauling machinery and supplies to Flint Creek Falls with eleven railroad cars arriving in Drummond that week for him to haul. 

According to the 1900 Federal Census the McLeod family included R.R.(42), Christina (39), Agnes (11), Jessie (7) and Anna Louise (4 months). The Mail announced Anna Louise’s birth on January 13th and stated the family lived in Parkerville. R.R. paid $215 in taxes for the year 1904. In June of 1905, R.R., F.J. Wilson and Percy Geirson were charged with seining fish in Stewart Creek on the Georgetown Flats and each fined $25. 

By September, 1905, R.R. was running as an Independent for the office of Sheriff and lost handily to J.D. Kennedy. By October “R.R. McLeod the well known contractor has obtained a lease on the Hughes and Peoples Iron Mines” with Charles Harding handling the mining and McLeod hauling the ore. In 1907 the Mail stated that McLeod owned the original Durfee ranch and had just bought the Ralph Kelly Ranch at Fred Burr. Then in 1910 McLeod sold 700 acres of ranch land at $40 and acre to G. R. Groth of South Dakota. (Groth leased this ranch to the Elery Owen family.) 

In 1915, daughter Jessie, age 21 went to Butte for “an operation that seemed unimportant” and died after the surgery on January 31st. She had been a student at Deer Lodge College and just recently accepted a position as telephone operator at Deer Lodge. Daughter Agnes, married Kenneth Hannah on June 18, 1913 in Deer Lodge and Louise the baby of the family married Harry Herron on November 28, 1919 in the Presbyterian Church. Harry worked at the Bryant Mines. 

R.R. was the owner of many buildings on Broadway by this time, thus the name “The McLeod Block” was a frequent reference. R.R. (Bob) died September 21, 1935 at the family home from Pneumonia at the age of 79. His obituary stated “ Besides ranching he was engaged in teaming and contracting and employed a large crew of men. He hauled the first machinery installed in the Granite and Bi-Metallic mines. About 25 years ago he retired from ranching and has resided part of his time in Maxville, where he had numerous property holdings, among them the town site of Maxville.” He was renowned for his ability to move large buildings. He was survived by his daughters: Mrs. Harry (Louise) Herron and Mrs. Kenneth (Agnes) Hannah, grandchildren and three brothers and two sisters. He was buried in the family plot Block 17, Lot 21, Grave 4. Christina died at her home on January 11, 1951 at the age of 90. and was interred in grave 3 in the family plot.