Sarah Mary Ryan (Seymour)
SARAH MARY RYAN (JAMES) was born November 22, 1837 in Newtownmoyaghy, Kilcock, Moyglare Parish, County Meath, Ireland, and died January 19, 1925 in Rochester, Olmsted County, Minnesota. She married WILLIAM FRANKLIN SEYMOUR October 27, 1858 in Jamestown, Grant County, Wisconsin, son of ALLEN SEYMOUR and SALOME WILLARD. He was born February 16, 1836 in Paris Hill, Onieda County, New York, and died July 20, 1902 in Lead, South Dakota.
Her 1925 Obituary states that she was born in “Newton Prospect Manor”, and passed the years of early childhood. She was a cousin of the late Chief Justice Ryan of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.
Her mother died when she was only a child. Upon her mother's death, her father, who had an eye on the Potterton estate, urged her to leave Ireland for America. At the age of 16 (in 1850) she took passage on the “William Rathbone” along with her step-mother's sister, Mary Kelly.
She found loving care and employment in the household of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Simmons who lived near Paris Hill, New York. She met William Franklin in Paris Hill, and followed him to Minnesota, meeting him enroute at or near Kankakee, Illinois (Joliet). Family lore says they were married there – but their marriage was registered in Grant County, Wisconsin. As bride and groom they continued the journey to Minnesota, living the first winter with Orin P. and Emma (Woodbridge) Whitcomb.
For more on Sarah's family, please see the entry for WILLIAM FRANKLIN SEYMOUR.