News highlights of Maxville during the years

The May 28, 1915, Philipsburg Mail described a disastrous fire that occurred early Tuesday morning in Maxville when the saloon and nearby buildings owned by Axel Miller were burned to the ground. A log barn that belonged to R.R. McLeod also was burned. The fire was found at 3:30 a.m. and by the time of discovery was fully engaged. There was no water nearby and everything was consumed. The Miller family was in Philipsburg that night and learned of their loss when they arrived on the train the next morning. The loss was considerable as Miller stored a large amount of goods. The origin of the fire was not determined. Research shows the Axel Miller family living in Silver Bow by the 1920 Federal census. 

The September 27, 1929 Philipsburg Mail detailed a case in court where the State of Montana vs Jack Lee and William Spawn were tried by a jury in the District Court in Philipsburg. By the request of the defendants each was granted a separate trial. Each were charged with assault in the second degree and burglary. Lee was found guilty and given a three year sentence in the State Penitentiary. While the jury was out another jury was impaneled and the case of Spawn tried. A verdict of not guilty was found for Spawn. The two men were discovered by C.C. Varney a rancher at Maxville, breaking into a bungalow owned by R.R. McLeod. Lee pulled out a gun and shot Mr. Varney in the leg. Lee was described as 28 years of age and was said to have a wife in Helena. Spawn was several years younger and a resident of Anaconda. He was being held by the Sheriff of Granite county pending the arrival of the Sheriff of Meagher county, where he was suspected of holding up a gas station. 

A small chest or trunk was found under the floorboards of an old miners cabin on Boulder Creek near Maxville in 1932 and many stories were fabricated of what the trunk was and where it came from. The contents were so fragile that they could not be handled but resembled bank notes and other securities which were believed to be worth several thousand dollars. The contents were brought to the sheriff’s office and were under the care of Sheriff Gus McDonald. One of the theories fabricated was by M.E. Buck of the Montana Power Company who believed the chest was from the holdup of the Northern Pacific Train No. 2 that occurred near Bearmouth 20 years before and was connected to the arrest of a man named Frankhouse in an Idaho “Hurdy Gurdy.” 

Finally on Christmas day in 1932, the realms of the past opened up and Henry G. Price a Montana pioneer told the story as it really happened in the days of the ‘colorful two gun man’ of the old west. A letter was received by the Philipsburg Mail dated December 25, 1932 and revealed the following: “Mr. Price was a resident of Pike’s Peak creek seven miles south of Gold creek in Powell county. He states he is eighty years old and had lived in this community for 69 years. He had lived on Gold Creek for the past 60 years. The writer stated in his letter that he came to the Flint Creek valley in the year 1864 and from that year until 1875 he had occasion to be in and out of Philipsburg a great deal. He recalls that in the year 1875 a sensation passed over the entire United States by reason of a robbery of currency and securities which was perpetrated in Philadelphia. That same year three eastern men arrived in Philipsburg and proceeded to organize what was known as the Belmont Mining Company with offices at Philipsburg and in that connection began the erection of a quartz mill on the southwest side of town. Along toward the close of the year (1875), two detectives arrived in Philipsburg and identified the operators of the Belmont property as the thieves of the currency taken in the Philadelphia robbery. When they found that they had definitely located their men the detectives notified peace officers and the three would-be mine operators were captured in their rooms in the Captain (George) Plaisted boarding house in Philipsburg by Sheriff Warren and Deputy Sheriff Mike McShay.” 

Unfortunately research has not disclosed any further details about the men’s names or trial. I am also unable to locate an obituary or grave site for Henry G. Price.

 unable to locate an obituary or grave site for Henry G. Price.