Thursday, May 7, 2020

Seavers in the News -- Walter J. Seaver Dies in 1931 in Salisbury, North Carolina

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

This week's entry is from the Knoxville [Tenn.] News-Sentinel newspaper dated 17 October 1931:

The transcription of the article is:

"WALTER P. SEAVER
News has been received of the death of Walter J. Seaver of Salisbury, N.C., formerly of Knoxville.  He was 47, and was superintendent of the Walker Veneer Co.

"The body will be brought to Knoxville, arriving Sunday night and will be taken to the home of L.G. Lewis, 104 West Cumberland Avenue.

"Surviving are his wife, three sons, and a daughter; also his mother, Mrs. Fanny Seaver; two brothers, Dee and Enoch Seaver of Knoxville; one sister, Mrs. W. H. Wade, of Knoxville."

The source citation is:

"Walter P. Seaver," Knoxville [Tenn.] News-Sentinel newspaper, obituary, Saturday, 17 October 1931, page 9, column 1, Walter J. Seaver obituaryNewspapers.com   (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 May 2020).

The only information of genealogical value in this obituary is Walter's death date and place, his age, his occupation, and his mother's, brothers' and sister's names. The names of his spouse and children's names are not provided, although the number of children are.  

The heading of the obituary says Walter P. Seaver, but the actual orbituary said Walter J. Seaver.

The key clue to finding this family in my RootsMagic family tree was his brothers names.  I found the brothers Enoch and Dewolfe Seaver had a brother named John Walter Seaver, and I already had a man by that name with a death date of  17 October 1931.

I had some of this family in my database - Walter, his wife, and one son.  A little research in the records revealed the other three children and their spouses.

John Walter Seaver was born 23 April 1884 in Hawkins County, Tennessee, the son of Christopher Columbus and Susan Frances "Fannie"(Camp) Seaver.  He married Viola Elizabeth Lewis (1888-1963) on 29 May 1907 in Rowan County, North Carolina.  They had four children:

*  Walter Lea Seaver (1910-1995), married 1938 to Eugenie Marie Stoessel (1911-2008).
*  Harlan Eugene Seaver (1913-1978), married Ruth Albrecht (1909-1952).
*  Cecil Edgar Seaver (1916-1980), married 1940 Virginia Anthony (1920-2008).
*  Fannie Viola Seaver (1920-1996), married 1938 James Wallace Allman (1917-2009).

I am not related to this John Walter Seaver.  He is a second great-grandson of Henry and Elizabeth (--?--) Seaver who came from Germany and settled in Scott County, Virginia before 1770.

There are over 9,000 Seaver "stories" in my family tree - this was one of them.   Life happens, accidentally and intentionally, and some persons die relatively young and leave young children behind.  I am glad that I can honor John Walter Seaver today.  

You never know when a descendant will find this blog post and learn something about their ancestors.

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Disclosure:  I have a complimentary subscription to Newspapers.com and have used it extensively to find articles about my ancestral and one-name families.


Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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1 comment:

Chad said...

You didn't say if you were related, or not. That is the best part!