History of Seattle before 1900

Two conflicting perspectives exist for the early history of Seattle. There is what one might call the "establishment" view, which favors the centrality of the Denny Party (generally the Denny, Mercer, Terry, and Boren families) and Henry Yesler. A second "revisionist" view, advanced particularly by historian Bill Speidel, sees David Swinson "Doc" Maynard as a key figure, perhaps the key figure. In the late nineteenth century, when Seattle had become a thriving city, several members of the Denny Party still survived; they and many of their descendants were in local positions of power and influence. Maynard was about ten years older and died relatively young, so he was not around to make his own case. Because the Denny Party were generally conservative Methodists and Maynard was, among other things, a drinker who lived with both his wife and an ex-wife and felt that well-run prostitution could be a healthy part of a city's economy, he was not on the best of terms with what became the Seattle Establishment, and Maynard was nearly written out of the city's history until Speidel's research in the 1970s.

Related Topics:
Denny Party - Henry Yesler - Bill Speidel - David Swinson "Doc" Maynard - Methodist - Prostitution

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