ALONZO SEAMAN

View Portrait of Mr. & Mrs. Alonzo Seaman

Twenty years’ connection with farming interests in Cedar county established Mr. Seaman’s right to rank with the leading and highly respected agriculturists of this portion of the state. He is now living retired and makes his home in Clarence, enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves. For forty-two years he has been a resident of the county, arriving here in 1868. He is now seventy-eight years of age, his birth having occurred in Broome county, New York, on the 2d of February, 1832. His parents were the Rev. George W. and Clarissa (Works) Seaman, both of whom were natives of the state of New York. The father was a minister of the Congregational church and became one of the early preachers of Illinois, going to Ogle county, that state. Later he became a resident of Carroll county and labored earnestly to promote the cause of Christianity. He passed away there in 1845.

Alonzo Seaman was reared in New York and Illinois, being a youth of thirteen years when he accompanied his parents on their removal to the latter state. In Carroll county he was married on the 21st of October, 1857, to Miss Rebecca A. Rose, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania and was a daughter of Rufus Rose, who became one of the early settlers of Carroll county. Following his marriage Mr. Seaman engaged in farming in Carroll county, having at first seventy acres of land which he entered from the government. Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made upon the place at the time when he took possession, but he resolutely transformed the wild tract into productive fields. Later he sold that property and bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, which he cultivated for a number of years. He also built a house and barn and carried on general agricultural pursuits until 1868, when he sold out and came to Cedar county, Iowa. Here he invested in one hundred and sixty acres of land in Dayton township and diligently developed the fields in the cultivation of crops best adapted to soil and climate. He also raised and fed stock, making a specialty of hogs. There he carried on farming until 1887, when he rented his land and purchased four and a half acres in Clarence, where he now resides. He built upon this place a good dwelling, together with a substantial barn and outbuildings and now has a well equipped property. He sold his farm a number of years ago and is now practically living retired. He became one of the first stockholders of the First National Bank and was financially interested in the institution for a number of years.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Seaman have been born four children: George R., of South Dakota, who is married and has one son, Clyde; Emma, the wife of George Kinney, of Clarence, by whom she has two children, Lowell and Edward; Jessie, the wife of John Woods, Jr., of Cedar county and the mother of one daughter, Gracie; and Rose Isabelle, the wife of Morton H. Coppas, a farmer of Dayton township. There are three children of that marriage, Maxwell, Howard and Harland.

Mrs. Seaman belongs to the Presbyterian church at Clarence. Mr. Seaman votes with the republican party but the honors and emoluments of office have no attraction for him. His life has been one of well directed activity, bringing to him the success which is his and the high regard in which he is uniformly held.