Maxwell, Colfax County, New Mexico Genealogy

Location:                        24 miles south of Raton, NM, off Interstate I25, exit 426.

GPS:                              Latitude: 36.5411 N;      Longitude: - 104.5430 W.

Elevation:                       5,925 feet (1,806 meters)

Map:                              Interactive Map1.

Photos:                           Modern day schools and downtown; 2010 post office, 1909 bank;

Post Office:                      Established 1909

Cemetery:                        For Cemetery details click here.

Census Data:                   1900 US Federal Census - for an alphabetic list of households, click here.

2000 US Census demographics, click here.

Details:

A small town located 27 miles south of Raton, off Interstate 25. officials of the Santa Fe Railroad named the town when the railhead reached this point in 1879, honoring the Maxwell Land Grant Company that gave it the right-of-way through its land. Officials of the company had in mind a community center to house the various offices of its vast growing empire. They hoped to make Maxwell City, as it was then called, headquarters for the company that had contracts as far abroad as Holland, England, and Germany, to say nothing of the many cities in the United States. It is unlikely the railroad executives had Lucien Maxwell in mind, but only vaguely, because he had long been buried at Fort Sumner.

As soon as the town was named, the town established: a post offfice, a general store, a saloon, hotel, livery stable, bank, resevoir, and newspaper "Maxwell Mail". The expected boom was not realized. Only when the Land Grant officials then gave serious consideration to irrigation ditches did their dream come to life and the town take hold. The town name went from Maxwell City to Maxwell to Maxwell City until April 10, 1909, when the Postmaster declared the official name as Maxwell, its name today.

The Land Grant owners plan to settle this area with German colonists from Russia, Russian Mennonites, did not work out. The Maxwell City Development Company was organized. The Vermejo Ditch farms were among the best in the Territory. The hotel and livery stable were built in 1890. Hollanders from Michigan came and left. Despite all the promotion schemes, some brave and hardy souls stayed. By 1902 the town numbered 200, and a school was built. Maxwell was long known as the Sugar City because the sugar beet industry flourished. After 1914, the town declined due to the loss of the Hebron Dam and following drought. Lumber businesses consolidated, hardware store moved out of town, church disbanded, post office downgraded, butcher shop and newspaper closed, farm houses were deserted

Family history links:

1. Alphabetic list of persons mentioned in the The Maxwell Story, click here.

2. On line, 2010 phone directory, click here.

Sources or Other Information:

1. Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge, click here.

2. Maxwell Municipal Schools, click here. 

3. Maxwell Land Grant, New Mexico State Historian, click here.