Yesterday's post centered on the death of a young man named Burton Seward, claimed by scarlet fever a week before his 17th birthday back in January of 1910. This caught the attention of Mary Kay Jensen, of Omaha, whose great-grandmother was Burton's younger sister, Zora. And she very kindly shared this photograph of the entire Seward family so that we could see what Burton looked like. He's the young man with the bow tie in the center here, age 13, since this image dates from 1907.
Mary Kay's paternal grandparents were Clyde L. and Zora E. (Seward) Simmons; her maternal grandparents, Michele and Maria (Corso) Della Betta. I met Mary Kay several years ago when I wrote about her uncle, Prosdocimo "Dutch" Della Betta, a young man from Chariton who gave up his life for his country while in service to it during 1944.
The photograph was taken on the front porch of the Seward home at 330 Orchard Avenue in northeast Chariton, a street so named because it passed through what once had been the Waynick family orchard.
There were 10 Seward children total, but one --- Martha Odella (1881-1898) --- had died of tuberculosis, also age 17, before this photograph was taken.
Shown here (standing from left) are Fern C. Seward (1890-1920, married John F. Butcher), Florence Daisy Tomlinson Seward (1862-1940), John Clarkson Seward (1859-1936), John Burton Seward (1893-1910), W. Porter Wagner (1876-1956, a son-in-law) and Dale Helen Seward (1888-1968, married Glen A. Anderson); (seated from left) Margaret J. Seward (1900-1987, married William A. Schindler), Ruth M. Seward (1903-1988, married Harold Shirer), Zora E. Seward (1898-1977, married Clyde L. Simmons), Ida M. Seward (1883-1953, married W. Porter Wagner), Minnie P. Seward (1885-1955, married Harry E. Downing) and George A. Seward (1895-1929, married Lucille Hutchinson).
And here's J.C. Seward's obituary from The Herald Patriot of Feb. 27, 1936:
J. C. Seward, for fifty years a resident of Chariton, and who was active in public affairs, died at his home, 633 Orchard avenue, on Saturday night, Feb. 22, 1936, near midnight, at the age of 76 years, 3 months and 16 days, following a stroke of paralysis which he suffered the previous Wednesday.
He had been in failing health for about two months but not bedfast, and for several years had not been strong physically.
Funeral services, conducted by the Rev. F. H. Wipperman, were held Wednesday afternoon at two o'clock at the Beardsley funeral home and burial was in the Chariton cemetery.
John Clarkson Seward, son of John and Lydia Seward, was born in Lucas county, Iowa, near Newbern, on Nov. 6, 1859. Most of his boyhood days were spent near Ackworth and Newbern on farms with his parents.
On March 17, 1880, he was united in marriage to Florence D. Tomlinson. To this union ten children were born.
Mr. Seward had been a member of the local Methodist church for about forty years. He had filled public positions for forty years, serving as clerk of courts two terms, mayor of Chariton two terms and was justice of the peace for 32 consecutive years, until Jan. 1, 1935. Recently, he announced his candidacy for the republican nomination as justice of the peace in the June primaries.
Mr. Seward is survived by his wife, who has been in ill health for some time and has been spending several months in Lead, South Dakota, with her children, and by six children, Mrs. Ida Wagner, Lead, S.D., Mrs. Minnie Downing, Omaha, Nebr.; Mrs. Dale Anderson, Lead, S.D.; Mrs. Clyde Simmons, Chariton; Mrs. Margaret Shindler, Council Bluffs, Ia.; and Mrs. Ruth Shirer, Russell; six grandchildren, and one half-sister, Mrs. Pearl Morgan, of Alliance, Nebr.
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Another thing I find interesting about the Seward family is the fact that nine of the 10 children, even though several of them lived out their lives elsewhere, came home in the end. Only daughter Fern C. Butcher is buried elsewhere, at Bronswood Cemetery, Oak Park, Illinois. The rest are buried in the Chariton Cemetery.
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