Isaac Maynard, Sr.'s parents are not yet documented by original records. Some say he was the son of James Maynard who later married Chaney Smith. Others say he was the son of James & Chaney. To my best knowledge, this lineage has not yet been proven and it is an active work in progress. He married twice. First, he married Polly Smith in Pike County, Kentucky, on November 23, 1823. They had at least eight children, four of whom can be documented in the 1850 census: Tabitha, Chaney(a), Isaac and Rebecca. The other four children are said to be Charity, Sarah, Nancy, and Jeremiah according to written works by historical authors. There is said to be one more son, Alfred, who died young. Polly died in about 1846. After the death of Polly, Isaac married Matilda Newsome in Johnson County on November 2, 1851. Their children were Lewis, Mary, Robert, George W., Elias, Alafair, Armenta, Jesse, Vicy, William, and possibly others. Some say that Isaac, Sr., had 23 children.
Isaac was a Civil War veteran. He enlisted in the Union Army on November 10, 1862. He signed up at Peach Orchard in Lawrence County. He was a Private in Company E of the 39th Regiment of the Kentucky Infantry. Some say he was a cook for the army. He appears on the Company Muster Roll (Discharge) and was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, on September 15, 1865, at the end of the war. He received an army pension for the remainder of his life.
While his tombstone notes 1887 as his date of death, his Civil War pension record lists 18 Sep 1889 as his date of death. WW Fields, a Baptist minister of the era, gave an affidavit that he performed the burial services on about 20 Oct 1889.
Finally, genealogical tradecraft calls for taking the earliest possible record of his age or date of birth. Due to his tombstone inscription, the dates on this memorial have been left consistent with the tombstone. However, his birthdate has been recorded anywhere from 1793-early 1800s. In the 1830 census, Isaac reported his age as 20-29; in the 1840 census, he reported his age as 30-39. By 1846, he had lost his wife; perhaps, the burden of raising small children without a wife weighed heavily on him. In the 1850 census, he recorded his age as 57 (although it was incorrectly transcribed on Ancestry as 27). On his muster-in card for the Civil War in 1862, he recorded his age as 43 (which is a far later birthdate than any other record). So, it is likely that he was born closer to 1800 than 1793 or 1795.