Maxim was from Buck­field, Maine.

Maxim was an ec­cen­tric, but the tra­di­tion that an un­for­tu­nate af­fair of the heart once drove him into the woods to make away with him­self, but a bird on the roof of a log­ger’s hut, mak­ing plaint­ive sounds, in­terr­upt­ed him, and he sat down and wrote the tune “Hal­lo­well,” on a strip of white birch bark, is more like­ly le­gend­a­ry. The fol­low­ing words, said to have i­nspired his mi­nor tune, are still set to it in the old col­lect­ions:

As on some lonely building’s top
The sparrow makes her moan,
Far from the tents of joy and hope
I sit and grieve alone.

Maxim’s works in­clude:

• The Orient­al Har­mo­ny, 1802
• The North­ern Har­mo­ny, 1805

Sources

Music

1. Buckfield
2. Hallowell
3. New Durham
4. Portland
5. Turner