Elder Maynard preached as a licentiate in the Plank road Baptist church and was ordained there in 1855. The prayer of the Manlius Church was answered as Elder Maynard came to be Pastor later in 1861. He was the leader during a time of turmoil as the country was being torn apart by the issues of slavery and secession. He brought a wife, H., and daughter, F.H., with him.
(In the Church Clerk's roster of members only initials were given for the Maynard women.)
In the September 1862 minutes of the Onondaga Baptist Association, the Church reports, "We are blessed with the choice of a pastor and last winter enjoyed a precious revival." The Civil War was taking its toll, however. "Some of their number have gone forth to defend our government, one of whom has fallen with his face to the foe."
Mary Avery Woodworth tells us, "Its capacious rooms (the parsonage) were opened in their turn for the ladies of the village to make hospital supplies for our boys in blue in the war of the Great Rebellion." The Syracuse Journal of July 22, 1862, reports: "The Ladies Aid Societies of the area were formed early in the war and contributed material items to the volunteers. The South of Manlius Village made up a box of clothing and necessities, consisting of bed gowns, sheets, coats, towels, napkins, pillowcases, drawers, bandages, lint (a soft material for dressing wounds, procured by scraping or otherwise treating linen cloth.), socks, wrappers, slippers, sheets, dried fruit, etc., for the volunteers of the army of the peninsula. Reverend Maynard (our pastor) took charge of it and delivered it to those for whom it was intended."
In the Onondaga Baptist Association letter for 1864 Manlius Baptist Church Clerk wrote, "Amid the strife and excitement incident to the commotions of the times (Civil War), we live in peace, harmony and unity."
On September 2, 1865, the Church Clerk records (membership and problems) were resumed. The new book was continued until February 29, 1952, covering about 87 years. Hiram Smith was the Church Clerk before and after the gap in records, which leads one to believe that there is a record book missing that covered the period from 1850 to 1865.
There was a significant change in the tenor of the meeting notes when they became available again starting on September 2, 1865. The earlier meetings of the Church, especially Covenant Meetings, seemed to be concerned mainly with the sins and shortcomings of some of the church members, i.e., deviations from respectable personal behavior or from the accented spiritual tenets of the Church as set forth in the Church Covenant and the Articles of Faith. The sinners and their sins were recorded in the Church Minutes along with a record of the efforts made to encourage them to returan to God's Grace. After 1865 the problems were mainly with members not attending services or not supporting the Church. Drunkenness, lasciviousness, adultery, horse theft, blasphemy, heresy, etc., were hardly ever mentioned as sins of the members. Perhaps the area was becoming more civilized, or perhaps some of the more interesting problems were being handled privately by the Pastor and the Deacons.
On April 1, 1866, Elder Maynard notified the Church that he would close services at the end of the year for which he was engaged (the first Sabbath in May) and a committee of seven, E.G.Salisbury, Hiram Smith, Rufus Dunbar, I.N. Loomis,Jr., A. Lamb, and F.H. Dewey, was appointed to supply the pulpit and obtain a pastor. He preached his farewell sermon on May 6, 1866. On May 20, 1866, letters of dismission were given to Elder Maynard, his wife and daughter. There was no biographical information available for Elder Maynard.
The last information concerning Elder Maynard was found in the Personal column of the Manlius Department of the Weekly Recorder for May 11, 1893, which stated that Reverend A. Maynard, the old pastor of the Baptist Church will hereafter be found at the Masonic Home in Utica.
