Ethel Augustus Maynard was born October 4, 1841 in Portland Michigan. As a youth he worked on his father's farm and late became a school teacher. In 1864, he joined with a group of pioneers traveling overland to the new mines in Virginia City, Montana Territory. After a short stint working in the town as a dishwasher, Maynard located a claim on the Madison River near the present site of Ennis. He lived the rest of his life there as a stock grower and farmer. On April 5, 1870, Maynard married Helen L. Briggs, and the couple had three children: Elbert A. Maynard, Edna (who later married Garfield Morris) and Frances (who later married Edward Howard). Ethel Augustus Maynard died in 1939 and his wife in 1931.
The Maynard family collection includes a typewritten transcription of Maynard's reminiscences compiled by his nephew, Leolyn Howard, in 1933; an additional version of Maynard's reminiscences compiled by Amelia Louise Maynard Ringwelski in 1988; a typescript of Maynard's reminiscences prepared from an original loaned to Montana State University by Ed Howard in 1965; photocopies of Maynard family genealogical data from an unidentified notebook. The three transcriptions of Maynard's reminiscences differ, and the present location of the original manuscripts from which they were taken is unknown. The reminiscences include information on: Maynard's overland journey of 1864; early descriptions of Virginia City and the Alder Gulch area; farming and ranching experiences in the Madison Valley; various trips to Yellowstone National Park in the 1870s.
This collection is open for research.
The Maynard Family collection was donated to Montana State University by Leolyn Howard of Bozeman, Montana, 1933; Ed Howard of Bozeman, Montana in 1965; Amelia Ringwelski of Camas Washington in 1988. This collection incorporates materials formerly assigned accession number 2255.
This collection was processed 2009 January 12