1873: Doc Maynard Dies

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On the evening of March 13, 1873, David Swinson "Doc" Maynard (1808-1873) dies at his Seattle residence (site of 208 1st Avenue S). He is 65 years old.

"Doc" Maynard was proprietor of Seattle's first store, a physician and surgeon, realtor, justice of the peace, school superintendent, notary public, clerk of the court, attorney-at-law, etc.

Born and raised in Vermont, Maynard moved to Ohio in 1832 to practice medicine. In 1850, he joined a wagon train that crossed the continent along the Oregon Trail, reached Puget Sound in September 1850, and stayed in Olympia, Oregon Territory. (In 1853 the northern part of Oregon Territory became Washington Territory.)

After one and a half years Maynard moved to Seattle and homesteaded on a Donation Land Claim. He remained in King County for nearly the rest of his life. Maynard named the town Seattle and, in what was to become Pioneer Square, was the first to plat the town into city blocks.

A Generous Man

The Weekly Intelligencer described Maynard:


"Although possessed of at one time what has within a few years proved to be one of the most valuable donation claims in the Territory, in consequence of the rapid building up of this city upon it, he died a comparatively poor man, having generously donated portions of it to parties as an inducement for them to settle upon it, and having sold the balance … for nearly a nominal consideration" (Weekly Intelligencer).

Beriah Brown, editor of the Puget Sound Dispatch, called David Maynard "the father of the town of Seattle."

For a "considerable time, he had been very low" with a disease of the liver.  In early March 1873, the doctor, "seemed to have abandoned all hope of recovery," ordered a coffin and "gave explicit and particular directions as to its construction" ( Weekly Intelligencer, March 10, 1873).

March 22, 1873, was the 65th anniversary of David S. Maynard’s birth and the date selected for his funeral. "Nearly every" business in Seattle closed in respect for Dr. Maynard. The Plymouth Congregation Rev. J. F. Damon gave the sermon at the "largely attended" funeral held at the Pavilion (southwest corner Front Street [1st Avenue] and Cherry Street). The Seattle brass band led the "solemn cortege," with Maynard in the coffin built to the deceased doctor’s specifications, through the town’s streets and to the cemetery. Upon arrival at the cemetery Reverend Damon gave another sermon.