David Swinson Maynard - Early Ventures in Seattle

Early Ventures in Seattle

Maynard joined in the logging activity at New York-Alki (later Seattle), near the mouth of the Duwamish River on Puget Sound. Instead of selling his wood to shippers at $4 a cord, he leased a vessel from Captain Felker, using the wood itself as security, and sold the load in San Francisco at ten times the price. With that money, he bought the fixings for a general store and briefly set up in competition to the only other such store on Puget Sound, which was in Olympia and owned by Catherine's brother. Mike soon agreed to his sister marrying Maynard, apparently on condition that they move the store to Duwamps and do something about that prior marriage.

In April 1852, Maynard claimed, as a married man, a tract of land of 640 acres in what is now Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood, and hired Indians to help him build a combination cabin and store. According to historian Bill Speidel, the land he preferred was the undeveloped southern part of Carson Boren's claim, but while Boren was out of town, Arthur Denny shifted Carson's claim north to make room for Maynard. Maynard's building became a hub of activity when Maynard became King County's first Justice of the Peace.

Maynard laid out streets in his claim according to the cardinal directions (north/south) but Boren and Denny insisted on orienting the streets according to their stretch of shoreline. Seattle's downtown still show awkward bends and jogs where the plats meet, but the rest of King County follows Maynard's original design. In reference to the disagreement Arthur Denny would go on to comment that "Maynard was king of all he surveyed, and some of what Boren and I surveyed as well." In a study conducted by the City of Seattle in the 1930s it was determined that Denny has platted his streets in violation of donation land claim law under which the original land claims were filed.

Doc Maynard's character and approach to city-building differed from that of his contemporaries William Bell, Arthur Denny, David Denny, Henry Yesler, and Carson Boren. In part, this may have been because he was much older and had already participated in the development of one city. He drank liquor (while the Denny Party were mostly teetotalers) and, with his friend Captain Felker, found someone to start a good brothel in Seattle — the infamous Mother Damnable — believing that vice was essential to the economic success of a frontier town of that time.

Maynard's political skills helped defuse difficult situations with the Indian tribes, in particular between the Duwamish and the more powerful Snohomish, led by Chief Patkanim. As part of his diplomacy, Maynard worked to rename the settlement after the Duwamish's leader, Chief Sealth (or "Seattle") in exchange for an annual payment to Sealth (local legend has it that the tribes believed having one's name spoken after their death would disturb the named one in the afterlife; hence the payoff to Sealth to make up for that in advance). This friendly relationship paid off during the Battle of Seattle (1856) when both Sealth and Patkanim kept their fighters out of the battle.

Maynard's political skills were helpful in persuading the legislature of the Oregon Territory to support the formation of a separate Washington Territory; in return, the legislature passed an unusual bill granting Maynard a divorce. He married Catherine on January 15, 1853.

Maynard developed many clever ways to improve his property and his city. For example, he obtained the right to host the post office at his store; as a result, everyone had to come to his establishment to get their mail. He sold a lot cheaply to blacksmith Lewis Wyckoff; people needing smithing therefore came to Seattle instead of its rival Port Madison. Perhaps his greatest coup was persuading Henry Yesler to set up a steam sawmill on land sliced from the north part of Maynard's claim and the south part of Boren's. This sawmill helped establish Seattle's economic ascendancy.

When the only lawyer in Seattle died in a canoeing accident, Maynard studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1856. In 1857, Doc Maynard traded his "downtown" acreage for Charles C. Terry's farm in West Seattle, but this new enterprise did not prosper; he and Catherine then opened a two-room hospital in what is now Pioneer Square. This enterprise failed because a number of settlers refused to use the hospital after the Maynards insisted of serving both whites and Indians.