Territory of Oregon
County of King
 

D.S. Maynard Esq is hereby appointed Clerk of the U.S. District Court within and for County and Territory aforesaid His appointment to take effect from and after this date
 Witness my hand at Seattle in said County this twenty first-day of April A.D. 1853

THE INTELLIGENCER

King County Official Paper

Seattle, Monday, March 17, 1873.

DEATH OF AN OLD PIONEER. -- Dr. David S Maynard, who had been hopelessly ill for a long time past with a disease of the liver, died at his residence in  this city on Thursday evening last. The  deceased was born in Vermont on the 22d of March, 1808, and consequently lacked only a few days of being sixty-five years of age. When quite a young man he graduated at Castleton, in his native State, and then removed to Ohio, where he setttled in Lorraine county, and continued to reside there until the spring of 1850, when he emigrated to the Pacific coast, and finally reached Tumwater in September of the same year. He removed from there to the present site of this city, and took up the donation claim upon which it is partly located, in April, 1852, and has continued to reside here ever since, thus having been of our oldest and most permanent residents. 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 to parties as an inducement for them to settle upon it, and having sold the balance before it was esteemed of much value, for nearly a nominal consideration.  The deceased leaves him surviving a fam- ily in Wisconsin, by a former marriage,
and a second wife in this city, who is widely and most favorably known amongst all our old citizens, and who has the sympathies of all acquaintances in her present bereavement. The funeral took place on last Saturday afternoon, and numerous members of the Masonic fraterity of this city and from Port Madison, headed by the Seattle brass band. Nearly every one of our business houses were closed as the solemn cortege passed through the streets. The religious services were conducted by the Rev. J. F. Damon, both at the Pavilion, where a sermon was delivered, and also at the cemetery. 
 

This was an ad, typical of those placed weekly
in the Seattle Gazette at this time.
This appeared in the January 9th, 1864 edition.

"See those teeth? Well, sir, just twenty-six years ago the doctor pulled out some of my second set, and now I am getting a third set. The truth is that sometimes I look in the glass and then laugh at myself for living as long as I do."

   That was one of the remarks which Mrs. Maynard made to a Times reporter who had a few minutes conversation with her at her home on Ninth avenue, just south of James street, last evening. Mrs. Maynard is now 80 years of age, or, rather, will be in a few days. Yet, like the pioneer that she is, she gets around with as much ease as the average person. As she says, she is getting a third set of teeth, and her hair is coming in again. She enjoys comparatively good health, and to hear her talk you wouldn't think that she is as old as she is. Once during the conversation she was asked to repeat something. She looked at the reporter and said:

   "Are you deaf, or ain't I talking loud enough."

   Mother Maynard came across the plains from one of the middle Western states in 1850. She originally came from Kentucky. Her first husband died on the plains, and in 1853 Mrs. Maynard married the doctor at Olympia. The marriage took place while the doctor was en route for home from the convention, which concluded to make the territory of Washington out of a part of Oregon. Dr. Maynard was a delegate to that convention, which was held in the fail of 1852. It was Dr. Maynard who gave Seattle its name. For eighteen years after they came to Seattle to live Dr. and Mrs. Maynard conducted a private hospital and the patients always called Mother Maynard their angel.

   "I could handle them better than the doctor," said Mrs. Maynard. "My hands was steadier, but then you can't find many old people today whose hands are as steady as mine." 

   Mrs. Maynard never liked Henry L. Yesler very well, but she liked his partner, Strobel, who afterwards sold out to Yesler and went hack to Ohio, where he died. Strobel cooked the first breakfast that Mrs. Maynard ever ate in Seattle. That meal was eaten in Yesler's log house. Mrs. Maynard's brother was Col. Simmons, who crossed the plains in 1844.

   "When I told Charles Prosch that the other day he laughed and said he never knew that," said Mrs. Maynard.

   "I don't know what I could say that will be of interest. Oh, sometimes I get in that mood when I could talk about early life on Puget sound for a good many hours, and again I am rather stupid. I have lots of data in some of my books but I haven't it here, but you will find I am pretty good on dates, though I guess you had better not say anything about this until I get a chance to look up the date and see if my dates are all right.

   "But some day I will talk about some of the incidents of Puget sound in its early days. I have had a good many experiences on Puget sound, a good many more than the people know of. And I am going to tell you something that some one told me the other day. They said that Angeline was not a friend of the whites, and then, too, they say that she was not very old after all. Now, I knew Angeline, and I knew her very well. Why, I taught Angeline to wash. Now, when I came across the plains in 1850 and settled in this country Angeline was then between 46 and 50 years of age. She was what we would call an old woman, considering that she was an Indian. She had a couple of daughters, too. So that would make her at the time of her death more than 90 years of age anyway. Now, let me tell you where they are wrong when they say she was not our friend. It was in the winter of 1854 that the Indians were giving us a great deal of trouble, and it was then that the Decatur was in the harbor. Dr. Maynard was then on the Indian reservation in Kitsap county. You couldn't get a white man to stay with him, so I made up my mind that I would go with him. It was while there that I commenced to carry what was known as the express. In other words, I brought the war news from the reservation to Seattle. A white man could not have done it. They would have killed him. I had to be very careful myself. Tell you how it was done? 'Old Bill,' I don't know his other name, who died some time ago, was a great friend of the white men, and he used to go out to Vashon and over to West Seattle fishing. There he would meet some of the Indians and they would tell him their plans. Immediately he would dispatch a friend to where I was and I would bring the news to Seattle. One day I learned through Old Bill that the Indians were prepared to make an attack on Seattle the following day.

   "I waited until darkness, and then with half dozen squaws, I took a canoe and started for Seattle. I was placed in the bottom of the canoe and covered up so that the Indians could not see me. On that first trip Angeline, whom they talk so much about, came with me and helped to bring the canoe to Seattle. Off Sandy point the Indians, who were on the lookout for what they considered spies, saw our canoe. They stopped it and asked the squaws what they were doing. The squaws said that they were coming to Seattle with some clams. All the time I was in the bottom of the canoe, but the Indians never suspected it. We reached Seattle long before daylight, and delivered our news. When we reached the Decatur they wanted to help me aboard. I told them I could take care of myself, and so I could. I hastened back to the reservation before it was daylight, in order that the Indians would not know that I was gone. 

"The Indians had intended to make their attack all right. But Curley, the treacherous devil-excuse me, but that's just about what he was-learned that the white folks knew of the corning attack, and were prepared to slaughter the redskins. So he let the Indians know of it and the attack was postponed for about two days. He was working for Yesler then. Then they got ready for it, and Old Bill, having learned the news, let us know of it. Again I came over in a canoe handled by squaws and notified our people. Governor Stevens did not think the attack was going to be made, and started off on a business trip. He had not been on the water very long when the reds showed up. They came around by way of Lake Washington. Then the fight came off. You have read about it. It was at that time that Judge Hanford's young brother was killed. He had his head out of one fort and an Indian shot him. But they can't say that Angeline was not our friend."

This may certify that David Denny and
Louisa Boren were joined in marriage
at the residence of Arthur A. Denny in the
County of King & Territory of Oregon, by Me in
the presence of A. A. Denny & wife & others on this
23d day January 1853
D.S.Maynard J.P.