Hiram Stevens Maxim - Family

Family

His brother, Hudson Maxim, was also a military inventor, specializing in explosives. They worked quite closely together until later in life, there was a disagreement on a patent of smokeless powder. The patent, Hiram claimed, had been put under the name 'H. Maxim,' and that because of this, his brother was able to stake a claim at the powder being his own. Hudson was a skilled and knowledgeable man, and sold armaments in the U.S., while Hiram worked mainly in Europe. Hudson had success in the States, which caused jealousy from Hiram (he lamented having "a double" of himself running around in the States). The jealousy and disagreements caused a rift between the brothers that would last the rest of their lives.

He married his first wife, Jane Budden, in 1867. Their children were: Hiram Percy Maxim; Florence Maxim, who married George Albert Cutter, and Adelaide Maxim, who married Eldon Joubert, Ignacy Jan Paderewski's piano tuner.

Hiram Percy Maxim followed in his father's and uncle's footsteps and became a mechanical engineer and weapons designer as well, but he is perhaps best known for his early amateur radio experiments and for founding the American Radio Relay League. His invention of the "Maxim Silencer" for noise suppression came too late to save his father's hearing. Hiram Percy would later author a biography on his father called, "A Genius in the Family." This biography contained about 60 anecdotes of Hiram Percy's experiences with his father throughout his early life (until about 12). Most of these short stories are incredibly funny and capturing; they give a reader an insider's (and child's) view on this magnificently brilliant man's personal and family life. The same family he would later abandon when moving to Europe (which would become a permanent move).

He married his second wife, Sarah, daughter of Charles Hayes of Boston, in 1881. It is not clear if he was legally divorced from his first wife at this time.

There is also a controversial case with a woman called Helen Leighton. She claimed that Maxim had married her in 1878 and that "he was knowingly committing bigamy" against his current wife, Jane Budden. In this "marriage," she claimed that Maxim had fathered a child by her (Romaine). The case was eventually dropped, at a settlement under $1,000 (the original amount asked for was $25,000), and Maxim put the case and near public humiliation behind him. Later in life though he did leave 4,000 sterling to a Romaine Dennison who may in fact have been the Romaine that Leighton claimed he had fathered. It is an unsolved mystery of Maxim's life.