William S. Maynard the estate stretched west to the present Ashley street, and halfway up the block to Liberty. For many years he owned a grocery, drug and dry-goods store and was said to be the wealthiest man in Ann Arbor at the time of his suicide. His grave is in Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor. Maynard's first wife was Julia Guiteau (d. 1856), whose nephew, Charles Julius Guiteau, assassinated President James Garfield on July 2, 1881. For a short while in 1859 Charles Guiteau lived with his uncle in Ann Arbor, while trying to gain admission to the University of Michigan.
Charles J. Guiteau his claim for a consulship. In the spring, he was still in Washington, and on May 14, 1881, he once more encountered Secretary of State James G. Blaine in person and inquired about a consular appointment; an exasperated Blaine finally snapped "Never speak to me again on the Paris consulship as long as you live!" Guiteau considered himself a loyal Republican and a Stalwart, and his narcissistic personality convinced him that his work for the party was critical to Garfield’s election to the presidency. Later convinced that Garfield was going to destroy the Republican Party by scrapping the patronage system,