Thursday, September 28, 2017

Seavers in the News -- 1921 Seaver Family Reunion in Springfield, Mass.

It's time for another edition of "Seavers in the News" - a semi-regular feature from the historical newspapers about persons with the surname Seaver that are interesting, useful, fun, macabre, or add information to my family tree database.

This week's entry is from the Springfield [Mass.] Republican newspaper dated Wednesday, 7 September 1921:




The transcription of this article is:

Seaver Family Reunion

Agawam, Sept. 5 --  A reunion of the Seaver family was held Monday afternoon at the home of B.F. Seaver on Elm street in observance of the 83d birthday of their father, William L. Seaver of Springfield.  About 30 were present, including the mother and five sons, with their families.  Edward H. Seaver, from Rocky Hill, Ct., Frederick L. and Wilford C. of Springfield, William H. and Benjamin F. of Agawam.  Luncheon was served about 1 o'clock on the pleasant lawn under the trees.  The afternoon was spent in happy converse with their father and with music, vocal and instrumental, in which the Seaver family are well skilled.  Mr. Seaver was employed at the United States armory for some years, including the time of the Civil War and is an example of a well spent and useful life and a serene old age.

The source citation for this article is:

"Seaver Family Reunion," article, Springfield [Mass.] Republican, Wednesday, 7 September 1921, page 13, column 4; GenealogyBank  (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 28 September 2017), Newspaper Archives collection.

I think we all wish that the local newspaper would publish articles about our family reunions.  I think we all wish that the reporter got the names correct!

In this case:

*  The father, William L. Seaver is really William Titus Seaver (1838-1924)
*  The son, Edward H. Seaver is really Henry Edward Seaver (1871-1922)
*  The son Frederick L. Seaver is Frederick Luman Seaver (1874-1951)
*  The son Wilford C. Seaver is really Winfield Clark Seaver (1852-1951)
*  The son William H. Seaver is really William Herbert Seaver (1877-1933)
*  The son B.F. and Benjamin F. Seaver is Benjamin Franklin Seaver (1876-????)

The wife of William Titus Seaver was Ellen Jane (Davidson) Seaver (1843-1929).  William and Ellen (Davidson) Seaver had 11 children - four of whom died in 1872 and 1873.  Their other children, who apparently did not attend the reunion, included:

*  Edna Maria Seaver (1883-1971), who married Harvey Clifford Merrill.
*  Grace Foster Seaver (1887-1927) who married Charles William Bostwick.

It would have been helpful to researchers if they had named everyone who attended the reunion.  Oh well.

William Titus Seaver (1838-1924) was the grandson of John Seaver (1777-1841) and Susannas Trumbull (1783-1840).  I don't know the parentage of John Seaver because of a lack of records for his birth.  He is very likely a descendant of my 9th great-grandfather Robert Seaver (1608-1683) of Roxbury, and probably of my 6th great-grandfather Robert Seaver (1702-1752) of Sudbury and Westminster, but I have not been able to connect John to these ancestors of mine to date.  I'm hoping DNA will provide some evidence.


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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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