Max, North Dakota
Main Street 1908 looking west from the center of town. Steinhaus building is on right with white horse in front. Max Drug company is on the left with four men in front, as is the Meat Market. Van Dome Hotel on left at top of hill. The two story building right behind the horse was the Steinhaus Bros furniture store. Local "operas" were performed in the upstairs hall. The building burned down in the 1930s.
Photo from www.maxnd.com
Before 1906, rumors were circulating that the Soo Line of the railroad would lay track close to Elbow Lake, north of the town of Garrison, to obtain water for their steam engines. On this prospect, enterprising businessmen began staking claims in anticipation of purchasing prime real estate in a new town. A haphazard shack-building boom ensued on the surrounding ambling prairies. On August 8, 1906, a surveyor named J.G. Sheldrick filed a certificate to plat what would become the Max townsite on a grid in McLean County.
The Soo Line came from the south and would have east and west branches at a junction to be named "Junction" or "Junction City". However, people started calling it Max's Post Office, after Max Freitag, eldest son of Paul Freitag. Paul Freitag was a local farmer and the first postmaster. Young Max asked people he met at the farm post office if they were coming to "his" post office to pick up their mail. The name, truncated to simply Max, stuck (in habit, if not officially).
In 1906 the town was moved two miles west to the present townsite, where the railroad junction was actually located. The name was changed officially to Max. The town is located on Highway 83, which runs north to Minot and south to Bismarck.
The Soo Line came from the south and would have east and west branches at a junction to be named "Junction" or "Junction City". However, people started calling it Max's Post Office, after Max Freitag, eldest son of Paul Freitag. Paul Freitag was a local farmer and the first postmaster. Young Max asked people he met at the farm post office if they were coming to "his" post office to pick up their mail. The name, truncated to simply Max, stuck (in habit, if not officially).
In 1906 the town was moved two miles west to the present townsite, where the railroad junction was actually located. The name was changed officially to Max. The town is located on Highway 83, which runs north to Minot and south to Bismarck.
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The Congregational Church was built in 1907. It was located just across an alley from the later Steinhaus home, built in 1921. According to Jim Steinhaus, youngest son of Art and Alice, "This was the Congregational Church that we boys all attended. In the winter we took our turns being responsible for building fires in the furnace before church each Sunday morning. By the time I was doing it the top of the fire box in the furnace had burned out and the church would fill with smoke, so I had to start the fire earlier and clear out the smoke." The photo on the left is from "The Golden Jubilee 1906-1956." The photo on the right was taken in 1962 by Ed Steinhaus
At first a room in Steinhaus Brothers store was used as a school and then moved to another store before the first Max School was built in 1907. This is the school where Alice Steinhaus was a teacher of the lower grades 1910-1911. She had 30 desks in her classroom and by the end of the year had nearly 60 students. (Photo of first school from "Golden Jubilee 1906-1956.)
The new Max School was built in 1929, according to Jim Steinhaus who took photo on right in 1978. It had all grades, (no kindergarden in Max). As you look at the brick building from the front, the 1st & 2nd grades were in the front lower left, 3rd & 4th in the lower right, then 5th & 6th upper right, and 7 & 8th upper left. All the rooms behind them were high school. All the Art Steinhaus sons graduated from this school.
This photo was taken shortly before the building was demolished in 1978. It was last used by Boeing as assembly plant for minuteman missiles in the gymnasium.
The new Max School was built in 1929, according to Jim Steinhaus who took photo on right in 1978. It had all grades, (no kindergarden in Max). As you look at the brick building from the front, the 1st & 2nd grades were in the front lower left, 3rd & 4th in the lower right, then 5th & 6th upper right, and 7 & 8th upper left. All the rooms behind them were high school. All the Art Steinhaus sons graduated from this school.
This photo was taken shortly before the building was demolished in 1978. It was last used by Boeing as assembly plant for minuteman missiles in the gymnasium.