Joseph Watson Maynes and Emily Keep

A few weeks back, someone named Jackie signed on to follow our family blog and asked about a great uncle, Joseph Watson Maynes and his wife Emily Keep Maynes. The following is from the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia which can be read online via Google Books.

MAYNES, Joseph Watson, one of the Elders of the Church who died in the missionary field, was born Aug. 26, 1856, in Hull, Yorkshire, England, the eon of John Alexander Maynes and Jane Watson. His parents moved to London in 1862, where Joseph joined the Church in 1873, at seventeen years of age, commencing a very active career as a minister of the gospel, assisting the Elders in the branch in which he lived, and acting as a local missionary. He came to Utah in 1881, settling in Salt Lake City. On Dec. 13, 1883, he married Emily Elizabeth Keep; they had a family of eight children, namely, Joseph W., Richard J., Alfred S., Charles W., Emily J., John K., James A. and Ivy E. Bro. Maynes was ordained a Seventy May 14, 1894, by Rulon S. Wells, and later became a president of the 4th quorum of Seventy. For many years Bro. Maynes was a most active and energetic worker in the 21st Ward Sunday school, he having lived in that Ward from the time of his marriage until 1899, when he moved to Waterloo. He was an employee of Z. C. M. I. for eleven years, leaving there to enter business with the Maynes, Wells, Schofleld Co.; afterwards he returned to Z. C. M. I. and was employed there until June, 1910, when he left to go on a mission to Great Britain. He was appointed to labor in the Bristol conference at Pontypridd, South Wales, and was afterwards transferred to Gloucester, where he presided over the Gloucester and Cheltenham branches. On Sunday morning, June 9, 1912, while in the full discharge of his missionary duties, he and his companion were on their way to Cheltenham on their bicycles, to conduct Sunday school; the tire on Bro. Maynes' bicycle punctured and the two Elders stopped to repair it, but as they found it was a bad puncture, Elder Maynes suggested that his companion go on and start Sunday school on time and he would follow as soon as possible. These were his last words, as he fell to the ground without uttering another sound, and expired before his companion could summon aid. His remains were brought to Salt Lake City and burled in the family lot in the City cemetery June 30, 1912.

MAYNES, Emily Keep, wife of Joseph W. Maynes, was born March 23, 1860, in London, England, the daughter of Richard Keep and Susanna Brown. Becoming a convert to "Mormonlsm," she was baptized in the year 1870 and emigrated to Utah in company with her sister Louise, in 1882. Soon after her arrival in Salt Lake City she married Joseph W. Maynes and later became the mother of eight children (six sons and two daughters), namely, Joseph W., Richard J., Alfred S., John K., James A., Charles W., Emily J. and Ivy E. Her husband was called on a mission to England in June, 1910, and while laboring faithfully was stricken with sickness and died June 9, 1912. Sister Maynes bore her great loss with commendable resignation and succeeded in keeping her family together. She was a woman of great faith and led a most exemplary life. After the death of her husband Sister Maynes devoted almost her entire time to the work of the Church, in the service of which her husband had given up his life. She was particularly devoted to the Relief Society, being president of that organization in the Waterloo Ward (Granite Stake) for several years. Upon the division of the Waterloo Ward, in 1919, she was honorably released from her position as president of the Relief Society and, being then a member of the newly created Wells Ward, she became an active worker in the genealogical society of that Ward until overtaken by her last iliness. After a serious operation had been performed upon her at the L. D. S. hospital in the hope of saving her life, she finally succumbed Jan. 31, 1920. She died firm in the faith of the gospel and confident of a glorious resurrection.