Thursday, January 18, 2018

Seavers in the News -- Mrs. Nathaniel Seaver Dies in 1912

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 Rock Island [Illinois) Argus newspaper dated Tuesday, 9 April 1912
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The transcription of this article is:

"Mrs. Nathaniel Seaver, who is well remembered in Davenport by the older members of the Unitarian church, died April 5, 1912 at Scituate, Mass.  Mrs. Seaver was the wife of Rev. Nathaniel Seaver, who was the first minister of the Unitarian church, and lived in Davenport for five years, from 1868 to 1872.  She is survived by her husband and three children, Mrs. Slocum of Worcester, Mass.; Mrs. Etta A. Seaver, who was born in Davenport; and William Seaver of New York."

The source citation for this obituary is:

"Davenport, Obituary Record," Rock Island [Illinois) Argus newspaper, 9 April 1912, page 2, column 2, Mrs. Nathaniel Seaver obituary; digital image, Chronicling America  (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 18 January 2018).

There are several clues here to identify Mrs. Nathaniel Seaver, who died in Scituate, Mass. on 5 April 1912.  She is the wife of a minister named Nathaniel Seaver; she has three children - Mrs. Slocum, Etta Seaver and William Seaver.

A review of my RootsMagic family tree database easily found Rev. Nathaniel Seaver (1835-1919).  He married Marietta Mills White (1838-1912) in 1865, and they had three children:

*  Florence White Seaver (1867-1955), who married George Albert Slocomb (1857-1938) in 1895, and apparently had no children.

*  Etta Anne Seaver (1869-1934), who did not marry.

*  William Nathanael Seaver (1877-1960), who married Inez Mildred Waite (1893-1974) in 1922, and had three children.

So Mrs. Nathaniel Seaver is Marietta Mills (White) Seaver (1838-1912).  All of the points line up with my database, including Etta being born in Davenport, Iowa.

Rev. Nathaniel Seaver is my 6th cousin 4 times removed.  I corresponded back in the 1990s with one of the children of the son, William Nathanael Seaver.

I sure wish that newspaper obituaries used the full names of persons and not just "Mrs." Somebody.  


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