Person Page - 602

On 6 September 1943 William J. Sewall, publisher of The Carthage Evening Press. Carthage, Mo., and Mrs. Sewall observed their golden wedding anniversary by keeping open house at their residence, 1607 South Main street, Carthage, last evening.
Mrs. Sewall was the former Mary Taggart, a daughter of the late Rev. and Mrs S.B. Taggart, of Upper Alton.
The wedding took place on Sept. 6, 1893, at 7 o’clock a.m. in the Taggart homestead on Liberty street, now Washington avenue. The bride’s father performed the ceremony. The couple left to attend the Chicago World’s Fair after the ceremony.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Sewall are natives of Illinois. Both graduated from college in the spring of 1886. Sewall completing his school work at Blackburn University while Mrs. Sewall graduated at Shurtleff College.
The Upper Alton public school, now Horace Mann, was being built in the early part of 1886. Miss Taggart took the position as teacher of the high school when the new building was opened in September that fall. This was the first high school Upper Alton ever had. After two years in this position she went to Carthage to take a place on the faculty of a collegiate institute. Sewall had gone to Carthage two years before to take a place as a newspaper reporter on The Press which he owned a few years later. He was a native of Virden and worked on papers in that town and in Springfield while in school. He is widely known in newspaper circles in Missouri and Illinois and has served as president of the Missouri Press Association and in other capacities.⁴

ALTON, Ill. July 30, - William J. Sewall, retired Carthage, Mo., publisher, was married to Mrs. Jean Taggart here Saturday night. The wedding was held at the upper Alton Baptist church. The Rev. LaRue Jensen performed the ceremony. Sewall retired as publisher of the Carthage Evening Press several years ago. He is a former president of the Missouri Press Association and a former chairman of the Associated Press members of Missouri, in 1937 the University of Missouri honored him for distinguished service in journalism. Mrs. Taggart resigned last week as a member of the Alton Evening Telegraph which she joined following the death of her husband, who was a brother of the first Mrs. Sewall. Mexico Evening Ledger, July 30, 1951.^5,6

Wm. J. Sewall, prominent editor of Carthage, Missouri. and a native of Macoupin county, died Monday of the past week. Feb. 18, at the age of 90 years. He would have been 91 had he lived until June 2nd.
Mr. Sewall was a native of Virden. He attended Blackburn and was a personal friend of the late Jas. E. McClure, Geo. F. Jordan and others in this city.
While attending Blackburn Mr. Sewell worked for a time on the Illinois State Journal and after graduation he went to Carthage in 1886. He was publisher of the Carthage Evening Press for 41 years until his retirement in 1944, and had been associated with that paper for 56 years, having joined the staff first as a printer and reporter.
Mr. Sewall was first married to Miss Mary Taggart, of Alton. She died in 1949. In 1951 he was married to Mrs. Jean Taggart, of Alton, widow of Luther M. Taggart of the Shipman vicinity. Luther Taggart was a brother of the first Mrs. Sewall. His widow survives, also a sister, Mrs. E.E. Dodd, of Springfield, Mo., and a nephew, Robert S. DuBois, of Washington, D.C. Funeral and interment took place Thursday in Carthage, Mo.⁸

The funeral of William Key Sewall, eighteen years old, who died at Millers, Nev., Feb. 11, will be held from the home of his parents, Mr and Mrs. R.H.F. Sewall, 1238 St. Andrew street, at 2 o'clock this afternoon.
The deceased was the descendant of two old, distinguished Southern families - the Sewall family of Maryland and the Nelson family of Virginia. The first ancestor on the Sewall side of the family who came to America was the stepson of Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore. Robert Sewall, the grandfather of the deceased, came to Louisiana when quite a young man and engaged in the sugar planting business operating under the firm name of Sewall, Johnson & Key.
William Key Sewall is remembered here as a bright, handsome boy, whose sunny disposition and courtesy endeared him to all who knew him. Besides his mother and father, he leaves two sisters, Misses Evelina and Ethel Sewall, and three brothers. R.H.F. Sewall, Jr., James Nelson Sewall and Paul Hébert Sewall.¹

William Marland Sewall, for many years associated with the Paine Furniture Co. of Boston, died yesterday at a nursing home in Reading. He was 89.
He was a long-time resident at 1209 Boylston St.. Boston, and he was a life member of Union Lodge, AF & AM. Boston. He leaves his widow, Viola (Taylor) Sewall of Reading; a niece, Mrs. Marion Sewall Andrews of Reading: and two cousins, Chauncy Sewall and Mrs.Clara Lubin.
The funeral will he held at the Waterman Chapel, Kenmore Sq., Thursday noon.⁵

He served in Company C 23rd Maine Infantry.⁷

The first white child born in that town. He attended the public schools and largely through private study became well educated. He was foreman for Roosevelt's Elk Horn Ranch in North Dakota for two and a half year, 1883-86. In the autumn of 1886 he returned to Island Falls, where he cultivated his farm. He had several camps for hunters on his place. In politics he was a Progressive, formerly a Republican. He was an assessor in Island Falls for several years and for four years was collector of customs for the district of Aroostook under President Roosevelt and President Taft. In religion he was a Congregationalist.²

ISLAND FALLS – William W. Sewall II, 89, died Oct. 15, 2007, at Mount Heights Nursing Home. He was born March 31, 1918, in Island Falls, the son of Fred S. and Phyllis (Garvarich) Sewall. He was married to Cleo (Price) who survives him. Bill served in the Army Artillery as a high-speed radio operator. He farmed with his father and cut hardwood logs until 1962, when he went to work for Maine Public Service Co. He retired from Maine Public in 1980. For many years Bill was a deputy sheriff for Aroostook and Penobscot County sheriff’s departments. He was an accomplished cabinetmaker and made many fine pieces of furniture for his relatives and friends. Bill was a victim of Parkinson’s disease and spent the last few years of his life at Mount Heights Rest Home, Patten. He leaves two sons, William W. Sewall III and his wife, Joyce, of Washburn, and David O. Sewall and his companion, Jill Willett, of Dyer Brook; five grandchildren, Lynne Bokovosky and friend, Kim Vincent, of Somersworth, N.H., David D. and his wife, Kim, of East Millinococket, Levi S. and his wife, Andrea, of Hermon, Heidi Prentice and her husband, Rob, of Rochester, N.H., and William W. Sewall IV and his wife, Ruth, of Bangor; eight great-grandchildren; one sister, Mary C. Sewall of Houlton; and one brother, George Sewall of Caribou Veterans’ Home. He was predeceased by his parents; and one sister, Elizabeth Schurman of Island Falls.¹

William Winter Sewall enrolled at Illinois College in 1853 and graduated in 1856. He was a member of Sigma Pi Literary Society. Following graduation, he moved to Virden, a new township in Macoupin county, about 20 miles south-east of Jacksonville which had been laid out only four years prior. He married Susan E. Cox of Virden, Il on December 9, 1858 and they had four children. A carpenter by trade, William was engaged in contracting and building, erecting many structures near Virden, including the edifice of the First Presbyterian church.
In 1862 William enlisted as a volunteer in the Union army and served for three years. He was shot through the leg in an attack on Fort Blakely, a confederate stronghold near Mobile, Ala., a conflict which owing to the slowness of communication of the period, was fought after Lee had surrendered to Grant and the war was already won. He was discharged and returned home after some three months in Sedgwick hospital in New Orleans.
Soon thereafter William was engaged in the flour milling business until he and his family moved to Carthage, Missouri in 1885 where he had a ten acre tract well set to fruit, just south of the city, which he started in 1886. It was then bare prairie but he built a large house and planted 1,000 fruit trees. These were chiefly pears and apples of the Duchess and Ben Davis varieties. He also had about five acres in small fruits in a flourishing condition and high state of cultivation, giving promise of fine crops. He expected to employ from 40 to 50 hands during the picking season and shipped with the Carthage Fruit Exchange, being one of the organizers thereof.

His military record notes that he was appointed 2nd Lt AGD Oct. 17/17 fr CL. 1st Lt May 16/18. Org: Statis Div AGO to disch. Overseas service: None. Hon disch for conv of Govt: Oct. 27, 1919.⁷

"Willis F. Sewall received his early education in the town schools of his birth-place and at Wilton Academy, Wilton, Maine, and Westbrook Seminary, Deering, Maine, graduating from the former in 1883 and from the latter in 1886. These institutions were preparatory schools, and after completing his studies therein Mr. Sewall attended Tufts College at Medford, Mass., from which he graduated in 1890, with a degree of Bachelor of Arts. He held the preparatory school prize scholarship for high rank throughout his college course. He was editor-in-chief of the Class Annual in his junior year at Tufts College, by choice of the faculty. He was instructor in French and English composition and assistant Librarian at Tufts College during the two years following his graduation, and he entered the Albany (N.Y.) Library School, in the fall of 1892.
He served as indexer to the New York State Commission in Lunacy, in 1893-4; was cataloguer of the Sauppe Collection of Classical Philology in the Bryn Mawr College Library, in 1894-5, and librarian of the Wilmington (Del.) Institute Free Library, from 1895 to 1899, when he returned to Maine in poor health. In the winter of 1902-03, he served as cataloguer at the Grolier Club Library in New York City, from the last named place he came to Toledo, Sept. 1, 1903, and in the position of librarian of the Toledo Public Library he has rendered efficient service and performed the duties thereof in a manner entirely satisfactory to all. In politics, Mr. Sewall gives allegiance to the men and measures of the Republican party."

Jones, Winifred Sewall age 94, died in La Jolla, Calif, Nov 12. Born & lived in Mpls, later moved with husband, David Gale Jones, to LkMtka. They retired to CA in 1966. She was an active member of Circle of Service, Plymouth Congregational Church, Mpls. Graduate of Smith College, Northampton, Mass. She is survived by a daughter, Caroline DeDreu, Cinn; son, Edmund Sewall Jones. Redlands, CA; 7 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be 2pm Sat Nov 19 in the chapel of Plymouth Church. Reception will follow in the church Guild Hall. Family requests no flowers. Memorials may be made to Plymouth Church, 1900 Nicollet Avenue.⁶