Six men, some wearing aprons, face the camera from the raised wooden walk outside W. H. Merrick & Co.’s store. Two light-colored horses stand harnessed in the foreground; farther along the street are darker horses and a covered wagon. The store’s broad false front advertises dry goods, shoes, groceries, and hardware. Smaller commercial buildings, including a drugstore, recede to the left beneath a line of utility poles.
The hand-lettered caption reproduced within the photograph reads “MAXWELL NEB.” The false front reads “W. H. MERRICK & CO.”; a Maxwell local-history page identifies this as W. H. Merrick & Co., general merchandise, and names Arthur Merrick among the family, though the men here are not individually identified; while the reverse credits S. D. Butcher & Son of Kearney, Nebraska. This is a single-image real photo postcard with a divided back, not a mounted photograph.
The card was mailed in January 1911 to Mrs Ella Spencer at South Scituate, Rhode Island, and bears a Brady cancellation and a faint South Scituate receiving mark. Headed “Brady Jan, 25,” the message reports no snow, relatively little cold weather, and widespread colds, followed by news of May’s family and her address in Maxwell. The postal markings date the card’s use; the date of the photographed scene remains unestablished.
- Title on card
- MAXWELL NEB. (inscribed)
- Medium
- RPPC
- Subject
- Nebraska, Occupational, Outdoor Scene, Solomon Butcher
- Dimensions
- 5.52 × 3.46 in (140.2 × 88.0 mm)
- Condition
- Gray handling smudges in the upper-left sky; otherwise sound, with clear storefront detail and readable reverse writing.
- Provenance
- Mailed from Brady to Mrs Ella Spencer, South Scituate, Rhode Island, in January 1911, as documented by the address and postal markings.
- Catalogue no.
- MRPPC3454
Catalogue details
Location
W. H. Merrick & Co. store, Maxwell, Nebraska · Maxwell, Nebraska, United States
Photographed subject · Locality (town) · 95% confidence
The depicted town is Maxwell, Nebraska, and the store name is very likely MERRICK, not HERRICK. An independently reproduced historical photograph on A. Olsen’s Maxwell history site closely matches the supplied scene: the broad false-front store at right, men on its wooden walk, two light-colored horses, neighboring storefronts receding left, and the caption “MAXWELL NEB.” The accompanying identification names W. H. Merrick & Co., consistent with the photographed sign. ([oocities.org](https://www.oocities.org/maxwellnebraska/MxwlDwnTwn1.jpg)) The Nebraska State Historical Society independently documents the W. H. Merrick & Co. merchandise store in Maxwell in its Charles Augustus Story collection description. This supports correcting the supplied business-name reading rather than treating Herrick as independently established. ([history.nebraska.gov](https://history.nebraska.gov/collection_section/charles-augustus-story-rg3010-am/)) The USGS Maxwell quadrangle confirms Maxwell’s location
Source: Historical Maxwell street photograph showing W. H. Merrick & Co.
