Bio, Thomas Hill Maynard, M.D. 
 
 
THOMAS HILL MAYNARD, M.D., Biography / Grant Twp, Clare Co, MI 
 
Submitted for use by USGENWEB Clare County, Michigan November 2002 
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Portrait and Biographical Record of Northern Michigan. Chicago: Record 
Publishing Co., 1895. 
 
THOMAS HILL MAYNARD, M.D., the pioneer physician of Clare County, has 
been a witness of nearly its entire growth and advance toward civilization. He has 
been actively engaged in practice here since October 16, 1866. At that time there 
were only Indian trails, and he was obliged to visit his patients on foot, first 
because there were no roads, and secondly because he was not able to own a 
horse. He frequently traveled thirty miles in a day, visiting nine or ten patients, 
and in this way walked twenty-five hundred miles in a year. The second year he 
purchased an Indian pony, and was thus equipped for the next two years, as the 
construction of roads did not afford the traveler convenience until 1876. For many 
years his territory of practice had a radius of from ten to twenty miles. He is the 
present Postmaster of Clare, and is one of her most respected citizens. 
 
John Maynard, the Doctor's paternal grandfather, lived to the good old age of 
ninety-six years. His son John was born August 12, 1784, and was in the service 
during the War of 1812. He possessed a good education, and was a successful 
farmer. He died March 18, 1856. He was three times married, and was the father 
of fourteen children. His last union was with Deborah Hill, a native of New York, 
while his birth took place in Maryland. The wife died June 5, 1845, leaving five 
children to mourn her loss, one having preceded her to the better land. Caroline 
is deceased; Reason died in childhood; John lives in Whitley County, Ind., as 
does also his brother Elon; and Martha Jane married George Kline Hance, and 
died in Whitley County. 
 
A native of Wayne County, Ohio, Dr. Maynard was born twelve miles north of 
Wooster, November 19, 1841. Left an orphan at the age of fourteen, his mother 
having died nine years previously, he went to live with a guardian. During the 
winter he attended school for several seasons, and worked as a farm hand the 
remainder of the year. He was preparing for college, but was taken sick and was 
obliged to abandon the idea. When nineteen years of age he began to study for 
the medical profession at Larwill, Whitley County, Ind., to which his parents had 
removed in July, 1851. For six years he studied and practiced with Dr. Jacob F. 
Smith. In 1866 he came to Northern Michigan, and for four years made his home 
on a farm in Isabella County, a mile and a half from the city of Clare, whence he 
came at the end of that period. 
 
May 7, 1871, Dr. Maynard married Josephine Berry, who was born in Chemung 
County, N.Y., and who died September 14, 1879, aged twenty-seven years, 
seven months and twenty-seven days. Her eldest child, Edna A., born 
September 30, 1872, died August 10, 1873; John Almon, born July 14, 1877, 
died July 20, 1878; Charles Henry, born August 11, 1879, died November 7 of 
the same year; and Albert Edward, born July 9, 1874, is still living. May 4, 1893, 
the Doctor married Idella Westmiller, who was born in Tompkins County, N.Y., 
December 5, 1856. She learned the printer's trade, at which she worked faithfully 
and managed to save $1,000 of her earnings.  
 
Dr. Maynard is a member of the Church of God. Socially he belongs to John Q. 
Look Lodge No. 404, A.F. & A.M. Politically he is a worker in the ranks of the 
Democratic party. He has recently presented to his son, Albert, a farm of eighty 
acres lying in Isabella County, Mich.