Maxwell, Edith Rolfe, 1886-1963

Edith Rolfe Maxwell was born in Helena, Mont., on 22 Jan. 1886 to Herbert Percy Rolfe, surveyor for the Great Falls Townsite and Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassman, the daughter of Sidney Edgerton, first governor of Montana Territory. The Rolfe family moved to Great Falls from Fort Benton in spring of 1884. Edith taught high school history, was secretary of the art unit of the Montana Institute of Arts, and president ofthe Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers. She married Arthur B. Maxwell who died on 10 June 1953. In 1938 Edith Maxwell, along with the Cascade County branch of the Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers secured a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project to compile and publish the biographies of Cascade County Pioneers. Maxwell supervised the project, sponsored by the city of Great Falls, which began with a staff of five. Working out of a basement office at the public library, the writers interviewed early settlers, while Edith researched and verified dates and facts and edited transcripts. The final book titled Great Falls Yesterday contained 405 typed mimeographed pages with fifty-two biographies and short historical sketches of area history. Edith Maxwell died in Great Falls in Feb. 1963.