The Abandoned Wife of Seattle's Founder
Dr. David S. Maynard claimed 640 acres in Seattle, then secretly divorced his wife of 24 years to marry another—a legal battle that exposed the heartless machinations of the city's early days.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On April 3, 1852, David S. Maynard settled on 640 acres of land in Seattle under the Donation Act of 1850. At the time, he was married to Lydia A. Maynard, whom he had left in Ohio in 1850 with the promise he would return within two years. Instead, he came to Oregon Territory and, without Lydia's knowledge or consent, procured a legislative divorce from the Territory of Oregon on December 22, 1852. On January 15, 1853, he married Catharine T. Boren. When Maynard filed his land claim, he swore an affidavit falsely stating that his first wife, Lydia, had died. The Land Office initially granted half the claim to David and half to Catharine, who proceeded to map and sell the land as lots in the Town of Seattle. In 1871, the Commissioner of the General Land Office reversed this decision, acknowledging that Lydia’s right to the land attached at the date of settlement. The legal argument asserts that no territorial legislative divorce could strip a woman of her vested property rights, and that the donation claim was built upon a foundation of fraud, deceit, and the abandonment of the wife who helped make the claim possible.
“The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small.”
This legal saga highlights that the foundation of modern downtown Seattle—specifically the Maynard Donation Claim—is built upon the systematic erasure of a woman's rights. It mirrors contemporary battles over property equity and the legacy of early 'founding' figures who often achieved success through the exploitation of their own families and local ordinances.
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