Physician, Pioneer. Born near Castleton, Rutland County, Vermont, he was one of Seattle's earliest pioneers. In 1832 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio with his wife Lydia and two children to pursue a career in medicine. He lost most of his personal fortune during the financial panic of 1837. He spent most of the following decade working to repay much of his monetary debt. In 1841 he discovered that his wife had been involved in an adulterous affair, but remained with his wife through the remainder of the decade. In 1850 he decided to travel to California to seek a new life without his wife and family, leaving Lydia to file for divorce on grounds of desertion, while avoiding the public ridicule and scandal of adultery. After joining several wagon trains he eventually decided to join an expedition headed to the Oregon Territory, arriving in the southern Puget Sound region of present day Washington state in September 1850. He spent the next year and a half living near the town of Olympia, before arriving in Seattle in 1852. The following year he entered into marriage with the widow Catherine Troutman-Broshears whom he had met in his travels along the Oregon Trail. He established the town's first store selling general merchandise and medicine and also served as the town's physician, surgeon, notary public, clerk, school superintendant, realtor, attorney, Indian agent and justice of the peace. On January 23, 1853 he performed Seattle's first wedding ceremony, uniting David T. Denny and Louisa Boren in marriage. He is credited with naming the City of Seattle, for his Native American friend Chief Sealth, leader of the Suquamish tribe. In 1872 he became involved in a personal scandal when his first wife Lydia, to whom he was still legally married, arrived in Seattle to lay claim to half of his land deed ownerships. During her stay in Seattle, Lydia lived with David and Catherine in Maynard's Seattle mansion during the court proceedings. He became known around town as the man with "two" wives. On March 13, 1873 Maynard died in his Seattle home from advanced liver disease. His funeral was one of the largest attended of its day. Originally buried in Seattle Cemetery in what is today's Seattle's Denny Park, he was reinterred in Seattle's Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill in the mid 1880s. One of the first people to be buried at Lake View Cemetery, his grave occupies the highest point within the cemetery.
Physician, Pioneer. Born near Castleton, Rutland County, Vermont, he was one of Seattle's earliest pioneers. In 1832 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio with his wife Lydia and two children to pursue a career in medicine. He lost most of his personal fortune during the financial panic of 1837. He spent most of the following decade working to repay much of his monetary debt. In 1841 he discovered that his wife had been involved in an adulterous affair, but remained with his wife through the remainder of the decade. In 1850 he decided to travel to California to seek a new life without his wife and family, leaving Lydia to file for divorce on grounds of desertion, while avoiding the public ridicule and scandal of adultery. After joining several wagon trains he eventually decided to join an expedition headed to the Oregon Territory, arriving in the southern Puget Sound region of present day Washington state in September 1850. He spent the next year and a half living near the town of Olympia, before arriving in Seattle in 1852. The following year he entered into marriage with the widow Catherine Troutman-Broshears whom he had met in his travels along the Oregon Trail. He established the town's first store selling general merchandise and medicine and also served as the town's physician, surgeon, notary public, clerk, school superintendant, realtor, attorney, Indian agent and justice of the peace. On January 23, 1853 he performed Seattle's first wedding ceremony, uniting David T. Denny and Louisa Boren in marriage. He is credited with naming the City of Seattle, for his Native American friend Chief Sealth, leader of the Suquamish tribe. In 1872 he became involved in a personal scandal when his first wife Lydia, to whom he was still legally married, arrived in Seattle to lay claim to half of his land deed ownerships. During her stay in Seattle, Lydia lived with David and Catherine in Maynard's Seattle mansion during the court proceedings. He became known around town as the man with "two" wives. On March 13, 1873 Maynard died in his Seattle home from advanced liver disease. His funeral was one of the largest attended of its day. Originally buried in Seattle Cemetery in what is today's Seattle's Denny Park, he was reinterred in Seattle's Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill in the mid 1880s. One of the first people to be buried at Lake View Cemetery, his grave occupies the highest point within the cemetery.
Bio by: Nils M. Solsvik Jr.
