Newspaper notice seeks participation in organizing local YMCA on June 27, 1876.

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On June 27, 1876, a notice appears in the Daily Pacific Tribune announcing a meeting that evening at the home of Catherine Maynard (1816-1906) "to take steps for the organization of a Young Men's Christian Association" in Seattle. No record of the meeting survives, but a local branch of the YMCA was incorporated on August 7 of that year.

The newspaper notice read in full:

"Y.M.C.A. -- A meeting is called for this evening, at Mrs. Maynard's reading room, to take steps for the organization of a Young Men's Christian Association. A cordial invitation is extended to all who are interested in the movement."

Catherine Broshears Maynard, the second wife and widow of Seattle pioneer David S. "Doc" Maynard (1808-1873), lived at 1st Avenue S and S Main Street at the time and was active in a variety of social and civic causes. However, she was not a member of the original all-male YMCA board, chaired by banker Dexter Horton (1825-1904), and the record does not indicate she played any further role in what became the YMCA of Greater Seattle.

Sources:
Daily Pacific Tribune, June 27, 1876; Clarence Bagley, History of Seattle (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing, 1916); YMCA archives; M. C. Rhodes, An Index to Early King County Pioneers (Seattle: M. C. Rhodes, 1984), 65-69.
Note: This file was corrected on February 23, 2004

By Walt Crowley, June 25, 2001

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