The Seaman Family

SEAMAN, "Will" William Edwin (1834-1915)

William was born March 16, 1834, two years before the Battle of the Alamo in Texas, at 57 Howard Street in Albany, Albany County, New York. His parents, Charles and Elizabeth (Smith), were recent immigrants from England.

He received but a "limited" education in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and Maysville, Kentucky (where his parents finally settled in 1846). At the age of sixteen Will and his brother Charles H. were living with Philip D. and Sussanna Stephens in Cass Township, Huntington County, Pennsylvania, apparently engaged as apprentices to the carpenter (their occupation being listed as "chairmakers" in the 1850 Census).

At the age of twenty, Charles left Pennsylvania, possibly in the company of his brother, Charles H., and began farming in Hampton Township, Rock Island County, Illinois. On January 1858, William married Christi[a]na BARTLETT in Rock Island County, Illinois. Christina was born April 17, 1842, the daughter of Michael and Bethena (BABBITT) BARTLETT.

On August 13, 1862, just before his son, William Edwin, Jr., was born, William enlisted at Watertown, Illinois, as a private in the Union Army, joining Company F of the 89th Regiment of the Illinois State Volunteer Infantry under Captain Williams. His regiment was with the Army of the Cumberland and he participated in twenty important battles and many skirmishes. He sustained no serious injuries and was honorably discharged June 10, 1865, as corporal in Nashville, Tennessee.

When William returned home to Rock Island, he soon departed for Maysville, Kentucky, due to a domestic problem which resulted in a dissolving of his marriage to Christina. William and Christina were divorced January 12, 1866, in Rock Island County, Illinois.

While at Maysville, Kentucky, William met and married Sarah E. WORMALD, on June 17, 1866, in Aberdeen, Brown County, Ohio (just across the Ohio River from Maysville). The marriage was performed by Squire Shelton with Peter D. Courtney acting as best man (there is no court filing of marriage).

Sarah was the third of eleven children born to George and Margaret (DEMENT) WORMALD. She was born June 15, 1846, in Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky.

After their marriage William and Sarah settled in Lynn Township, Dent County, Missouri (where William's older brother, Charles H. was living). They lived in Missouri until 1872 when they moved to Maple Township, Cowley County, Kansas, where they homesteaded the northwest quarter of Section 20. In the first year on the homestead William built a 10 by 20 foot cabin of sycamore lumber with walnut slab doors and opened 40 acres of sod which he planted to corn. The following year William built a 14 by 24 foot one and one-half story home and made further improvements to the farm.

By 1885 William had improved his farm and added to it to the extent that he owned 320 acres (280 acres of which were fenced with 1600 rods of hedge and 80 rods of wire fence) with an 1885 value of $6,000. He had 7 horses, 8 mules, 3 milk cows, 6 other cattle, 500 sheep (200 had died two years earlier), 39 swine, 350 apple trees (100 bearing), 20 not-yet-bearing pear trees, 400 peach trees (300 bearing), 20 plum trees (10 bearing), 1/2 acre of blackberries, 1/2 acre of walnut trees, 4 1/2 acres of cottonwood trees, and last, but not least, two dogs. The year before he raised 28 acres of winter wheat, 100 acres of corn, 7 acres of oats, 3/21 acre of Irish potatoes, and 40 acres of Timothy hay. That same year he sold $100 worth of poultry and eggs, 400 pounds of butter, and 3200 pounds of wool.

The additional lands he bought (beyond the homestead) were 80 acres known as the A.J. Scott place (S 1/2 NE Qtr Sec 18 in Maple Township) and 80 acres known as the A.E. Huff place (1/2 NW Qtr Sec 32 in Maple Township).

In 1886 William bought the hardware and implement business of Worden and Jewitt in Udall, turning the farming over to his sons. The following year William and Sarah moved to Udall.

In 1888 William traded his business to D.D. Kellogg (for his hardware and implement business in Udall; the reason for the swap unknown). William ran this business until 1904 when he retired and turned the business over to his son Arthur.

Upon retirement, William and Sarah moved to Winfield residing at 1803 Loomis Street. They lived at this address until William died on March 18, 1915 of a stroke of paralysis at the age of 81 years and two days. William's six sons served as pall bearers at his funeral.

Sarah died June 7, 1927, in Udall, Kansas, after being confined to her bed for seven weeks.

William and Sarah are buried at Union (Graham) Cemetery in Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas.

William was a member of the G.A.R. Post and a lifetime member of the United Brethren Church. Sarah was a member of the Rebekah Lodge for the last nine years of her life and a member of the Episcopal, United Brethren, Methodist, and Congregational Churches at various times. The children of William and Christina were:
Mary Frances SEAMAN (1859-1941).
William Edwin SEAMAN, Jr. (1862-1864) . William was born September 1, 1862, in Rock Island County, Illinois. He died in infancy on March 13, 1864.

Christina married George SWEGLE after her divorce from William SEAMAN The children of William and Sarah were:
George Leonard SEAMAN (1867-1939)
Wallace McDonald SEAMAN (1870-1949)
Clarence Wormald SEAMAN (1872-1944)
Oscar Guy SEAMAN (1874-1936)
Arthur Edwin SEAMAN (1877-1949)
Jacob James SEAMAN (1879-1941)

Submitted by Ken W. Seaman

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George Leonard SEAMAN (1867-1939)

George Leonard was born October 7, 1867, in Linn Township, Dent County, Missouri, the eldest son of William Edwin and Sarah Elizabeth (WORMALD) SEAMAN. At the age of five (in 1872) he moved with his parents in a covered wagon from Missouri to Kansas, where his father homesteaded.

George was married by Rev. Inman on February 20, 1887, to Adah SHULL in the bride's home near Mulvane, Summer County, Kansas. Adah was born July 1, 1866, in Elvaston, Hancock County, Illinois, the daughter of Alonzo and Sarah Ellen (ERTLE) SHULL.

Immediately after their marriage George and Adah moved to western Kansas where they homesteaded in Hamilton County near Syracuse (fifteen miles from the Colorado border). After three years they returned to the Udall-Mulvane area taking up residence four miles north of Udall. Their three children were born at this location.

In his younger years George was not only a farmer, but an accomplished auctioneer, having graduated from auctioneering schools in Trenton, Missouri, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was well known for his "horse trading" abilities.

In 1915 George and Adah retired from the farm to Udall and became identified with several business interests from which he prospered. At one time before the 1930's George's holdings of land where so extensive in the Mulvane-Udall area that he was sometimes referred to as the "Land King". He lost most of his holdings in the Great Depression years.

George was extensively known throughout Southcentral Kansas and beyond, a notoriety he gained, in part, from his auctioneering and "horse trading" activities, but even more so from a team of white oxen which he owned, trained and drove in regional parades. For years he lead the Mulvane Old Settler's Parade with his magnificent team. At the inauguration of Alf Landon as governor of Kansas, George hauled the new governor across the capitol city, Topeka, and later carried Governor Landon across Wichita to a new airplane (symbolizing the old and new modes of transportation). He was always in demand for the annual Christmas parade in Wichita and for most county fairs in the area.

Ironically, when George's wife, Adah, died on October 10, 1938, in her home in Udall, he was driving his team down Main Street in Winfield, Kansas, to the fairgrounds as part of his home county fair's festivities.

George died July 5, 1939 at his home in Udall, Kansas, at the age of 71 years (on his eldest daughters' birthday).

George and Adah were buried in the SHULL plot in the Littleton Cemetery in Gore Township, Sumner County, Kansas (between Udall and Mulvane).

The children of George and Adah were:
"Sadie" Sarah SEAMAN (1892-1955)
Georgie Ellen SEAMAN (1897-1973)
"Bill" William Alonzo SEAMAN (1900-1962)

Submitted by Ken W. Seaman