American Seymour Genealogy

Rochester Woman, Who Died Monday¹⁾, was Born in Ireland; Survived by 7 Children

Funeral services were held this afternoon at one o’clock for Mrs. W. F. Seymour, mother of Miss Mabel Seymour, who died Monday night at the College Apartments.

Mrs. W. F. Seymour was born Nov. 23, 1837, in County Meath, Ireland.  Her father was James Ryan, the Dublin architect, and her mother, Abby Potterton Ryan, the daughter of an English gentleman, Mark Potterton of Newton Prospect Manor, the house where Mrs. Seymour was born and where she passed the years of her early childhood.  She was a cousin of the late Chief Justice Ryan of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin; and a great degree she shared his grasp of public affairs, and his keen interest in the progress of the world.  Her mother died when she was only a child.  A few years later, in 1850, she was sent to America, where she was adopted into the family of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Simmons of Paris Hill, New York, with whom she lived until her marriage.

She was married in 1858 to W. F. Seymour of Paris Hill²⁾ and they came to Olmsted county to make their new home.  She has lived here ever since, and in the intervening years has seen Minnesota grow from a few scattered pioneer settlements to a great commonwealth.  Life in the pioneer days of Minnesota was not easy.  They had privations and hardships, but there was a great devotion and companionship between them, and they formed many lasting friendships that have endured to the children’s children of her friends.  In their early life together during the Civil War, their house was always open to the widows and orphans of that troubled time, and many children beside their own found shelter and a mother’s care.

Mrs. Seymour was a woman of keen mentality.  Her earliest recollection was of bringing the morning paper to her father to spell out, under his direction, the news of the day.  From that day on, she followed the progress of the world with an interest that never flagged.

Life took heavy toll of her later years.  Husband, children and home, one after another passed out of her life and left her more lonely than any of those nearest her could ever know.  A few years ago she suffered a broken hip and the injury confined her quite closely to her room and to her chair.  A year ago her eyesight failed, the needle work that had been so dear to her was put away, and the hands, busy always for others, lay idle in her lap.  But as her life narrowed and as she, each year, drifted a little farther toward the twilight, she turned resolutely to what remained of life and found contentment and happiness there.  Sunset, for her was bright.  She had her memories and never lost her hopes.  The kindness and love which she had given others was returned to her in her years of loneliness.  Her room was seldom without flowers.  Young people came and left a little of their youth and laughter with her when they went.  The boys who carried the evening papers learned to bring them in and lay them in her lap, and to stop a moment to tell her of their school or sports.  Her friends and their children came often, and brightened her life with all the attention they could have given to their own, and the physician she loved was at her bedside when the shadows fell.

Monday afternoon she had written letters to her son and little granddaughter in Canada.  She was tired when the letters were done, and she rested for a while.  At five o’clock she returned to her chair and asked if the evening papers had come.  But before they could be opened she was suddenly stricken with an attack of the heart trouble from which she had suffered the past three years, and died a few hours later.  She leaves seven children, Mrs. C. S. Crawford and Mabel Seymour of this city; H. A. Seymour³⁾ of Eagle Point, Oregon; Mrs. Thos. D. Edwards, Lead, South Dakota; Mrs. C. R. France of Eyota; Chas. J. Seymour of Great Falls, Montana, and Leon P. Seymour of Regina, Canada.  She is survived by the following grandchildren: Allen S. Crawford, Harold H. Crawford⁴⁾, Willard Seymour, Mrs. Pearson, Mrs. Quigley, Mrs. Twentyman, Mildred C. France, Robert and Helen Seymour, and all but one of whom were much with their grandmother, during their childhood.  There are eight great grandchildren, Robert, Harold, Allen and Richard, sons of Allen Crawford of St. Paul; Charles, Robert and Paul, sons of Mrs. Pearson of Rochester, and Margaret Seymour Quigley, daughter of Mrs. H. S. Quigley of Minneapolis.  The funeral services were at Calvary Episcopal church.  Rev. Ross Colquhoun of Chatfield officiating.  The pall bearers were Charles Case, Frank Case, John J. Fulkerson, William Mitchell of Rochester, George Wood of Eyota, and Judge Martin of Mantorville.