Thursday, December 3, 2020

Seavers in the News -- Lt. Horace Seaver Dies in 1945 in California

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 Hartford [Conn.] Courant newspaper dated 12 May 1945:

The transcription of the article is:

"Lt. Horace Seaver, 57, Dead in California

"Lieutenant Horace Seaver, 57, formerly of Hartford, and a member of the famous Lafayette Escadrille Francaise Militaire during the last war, died April 27 at Caramillo Hospital, Caramillo, Calif, where he had been a patient for 13 years.  He had been blinded in battle.

"Born in Boston, he was the son of Mrs. Annie L. Seaver of 183 Wethersfield Avenue, and the late William Seaver.  He was a member of Lafayette Lodge AF and AM of Boston.  He enlisted in the Lafayette Escadrille in England and served with that group for more than two and a half years.  The body was cremated in Caramillo."

The source citation is:

""Lt. Horace Seaver, 57, Dead in California," Hartford [Conn.] Courant newspaper, obituary, Saturday, 12 May 1945, page 4, column 2, Horace Seaver obituary;  Newspapers.com   (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 December 2020).

This obituary provides the name, age, residence, death date and place, military service, and mother's married name and address.  It does not provide a birth date, a spouse or children names.  "Caramillo" is probably Camarillo in Ventura County, California.

There is information about the Lafayette Escadrille in   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_Escadrille.  Unfortunately, Horace Seaver is not listed on that page, and probably should be.

Horace Seaver (1887-1945) was born 5 April 1887 in Boston, the son of William and Annie Louise (Voll) Seaver.  He married Ethel Van Vliet (1892-1934) in February 921 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and they had one son:

*  John Van Vliet Seaver (1922-2006), married about 1948 to Jean Northington (1929-2009).

I am a 8th cousin 2 times removed to Horace Seaver, with the common ancestors being Robert and Elizabeth (Ballard) Seaver, the immigrants in 1634 to Boston, Massachusetts.

There are over 10,000 Seaver "stories" in my family tree - and this was one of them.   Life happens, accidentally and intentionally, and sometimes a person is injured at a relatively young age, yet presses on with his life. I am glad that I can honor Horace Seaver today.  

You never know when a descendant or relative will find this blog post and learn something about their ancestors or relatives, or will provide more information about them to me.

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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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