51. JOHN⁵ SEYMOUR (John⁴, John³, Thomas², Richard¹), born in 1734, died at Norwalk, Conn., 22 Nov. 1786 ae, 52 (gravestone); married REBECCA KEELER, who was living at Norwalk in 1790.

Administration upon the estate of John Seymour 2nd, late of Norwalk deceased, was granted to Samuel Seymour, 3 Dec. 1785. Inventory taken by John Lockwood and James Seymour. Amount, £369-18-0.

Division of the estate of John Seymour, jr., late of Norwalk deceased, was made 4 July 1788 between the widow, eldest son Jonathan, son Samuel, son John, and daughters Ruth Sammons wife of Augustine Sammons, Rebecca Seymour, Sally Seymour, Betsey Seymour and Patty Seymour.

The Whitney Point branch of the Seymour family has produced several men of distinction, and we interrupt the genealogical sequence to insert a few memorabilia.

JOHN⁶ SEYMOUR (1767-1856) had, among others, a son, GEORGE WHITFIELD⁷ SEYMOUR, born at Lisle, N.Y., 12 Apr. 1812, died about 1888, who married 6 June 1838, Mary Freeman, born 10 May 1817, died about 1894, daughter of Stephen and Clarissa (Thompson). They had, as surviving children, two daughters, Stella⁸ (born 26 Feb. 1843, died 18 Apr. 1929), a pianist of distinction, of Scranton, Pa., and Mary Louise (Mrs. W. O. Newcomb), and three sons, sketches of whom follow.

HON. JOHN SAMMIS⁸ SEYMOUR, born at Whitney Point, Broome Co., N.Y., 28 Sept. 1848, died 16 June 1931, married Clara E. Olmstead, born 28 Feb. 1858, died 11 Oct. 1912. He was educated at Whitney Point Academy and at Yale University, from which he received the degrees of B.A. (1875) and LL.B. (1878). He was admitted to the Bar and began practice in New York City, becoming senior member of the firm of Seymour, Seymour & Harmon, making a specialty of corporation and patent law. His residence was in Norwalk, Conn., and he served in the Connecticut Senate in the dead-lock sessions of 1891-93. He was appointed Commissioner of Insurance of Conn., 1893; and was U.S. Commissioner of Patents, 1893-97. He was a member of the Board of Estimate and Taxation in Norwalk, and after 1897 resumed the practice of law in New York City, with the firm of Seymour, Seymour & Megrath. Two children survived:

FREDERICK⁸ SEYMOUR, brother of the above, born at Whitney Point, 2 Aug. 1856, died 29 May 1925, married Julia C. Dikeman. He was graduated from Yale College in 1881, attended Columbia Law School, and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1882. He settled in East Orange, N.J., and was a member of his brother's law firm. His children were Helen⁹ (wife of her first cousin, Clive Newcomb), Margaret (Mrs. Ripley Nelson), and Frederick Dikeman.

LOUIS IRVING⁸ SEYMOUR, youngest of the brothers, had a colorful career. He was born at Whitney Point, N.Y., 23 Dec. 1860, and died at Zand River, Orange River Colony, South Africa, 14 June 1900; married 30 June 1886, Kate Perry of Whitney Point. No children.

Mr. Seymour was educated in his native village, and being mechanically inclined, at the age of seventeen entered the machine shops of John Cotter at Norwalk, Conn. After working there three years, he went up for examinations at Annapolis, but after passing it was found that he was a few weeks too old, so he had to abandon the hope of a career in the U.S. Navy. After working for the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company from 1881 to 1884, he accepted at the age of twenty-four an engagement offered by the Dickson Manufacturing Company to erect a mill engine for EI Callao Gold Mining Company in Venezuela. After finishing the erection, he was retained as the chief mechanical engineer of the company.

Early in 1886 he returned to the United States, and a few months later married his boyhood sweetheart. At this time he held positions with the Washington Cotton Mills of Lawrence, Mass., and with the Plymouth Cordage Company of Plymouth, Mass. While working with the latter he became more widely known, and in Feb. 1890 he was engaged to proceed to Kimberly in South Africa, where he took up the work of chief mechanical engineer for the De Beers Consolidated Mines.

In July 1893, he becamemanaging director of Fraser and Chalmers. Erith, England, at the same time retaining the position of consulting engineer to the De Beers Consolidated Mines. In 1896 he returned to Africa, and in that connection the following story is told. It is said that a group of English capitalists invited Seymour to dinner, after which his host asked him whether he could be induced to return to South Africa. “I could be,” said Seymour, “but it would cost money.” “How much?” inquired his host. “Fifty thousand dollars a year,” was Seymour's prompt rejoinder.

His terms were accepted, and he took up his residence in Johannesburg, holding the position of mechanical engineer to Messrs. H. Eckstein and Company and the Rand Mines, Limited. At the outbreak of the Boer War, he organized the Railway Pioneer Regiment and was made its Major, the highest rank that could be held by any but a British subject. While building a bridge at the Zand River, his regiment was attacked, and he was shot and instantly killed.

When Sir Alfred Moseley, who had made a fortune in the Kimberly diamond mines, about 1903 brought a group of English educators to this country to inspect American schools, he stated at a banquet given him in Boston that his admiration for American technical education dated from his observation of the prodigious feats of two young American engineers, one of whom was Louis Seymour. Oddly enough, Seymour had not enjoyed the advantages of technical education, but was an engineer by native endowment, an aptitude which amounted to genius.

He was said to be brilliant as an organizer. As an administrator and executive head, he commanded the unlimited confidence of all. He was a man of vivid personality, of enormous virility and vitality, with a magnificent physique; generous, kindly though masterful, honest and straight. He remained an American citizen and, though living much away from his native country, was always loyal, while strongly supporting the movement for understanding between the United States and Great Britain. After his death a committee was formed of his associates, including such men as John Hayes Hammond and Gardiner Williams, with Sir Alfred Milner as honorary president, to raise a Seymour Memorial Fund, with which was founded the “Seymour Technical Library” at Johannesburg.

HON. DANIEL SAMMIS⁹ SANFORD, through his mother Helen E.⁸ Sammis, was doubly a Seymour descendant of this branch, his grandparents being John Seymour⁷ Sammis and Nancy Williams⁷ Seymour. Born at Redding, Conn., 10 Apr. 1859, he was educated at Yale College (B.A., 1882, M.A., 1885), and in the Harvard Graduate School, where he took courses in education in 1891-92. He was principal of the Oil City (Pa.) High School, 1882-83, mathematics master at St. John's School, Ossining, N.Y., 1883-84, principal of High and Centre Schools, Stamford, Conn., 1884-91, and head master of the Brookline (Mass.) High School, 1891-1905. In 1898 and 1899 he studied and observed school methods in France and Germany. He became known as an educator, and contributed articles on the subject to various periodicals. In 1905 he founded the Sanford School at Redding Ridge on the site of the Redding Institute which his father founded in 1847. He later became Clerk of the School Fund Office, Treasury Department, State of Connecticut, a post for which his knowledge and ability admirably fitted him. He was a close personal friend of the author for upward of half a century.

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