except for a few months when his father owned a quarter interest, and has added coal, thoroughbred Poland-China hogs, Shorthorn cattle and Percheron horses to his other business, besides owning three hundred and twenty acres of land, which is rented out.

Guy Oren, the third son, was born at the Seaton home in Jewell City, on August 8, 1886, and Sadie Gladys, the baby of the family, on February 13, 1890.

Besides attending to the regular business of his grain office, the subject of this sketch has written considerably for the agricultural press and the local newspaper, besides a volume of poems for his mother; a book of stories for children, many of which have been published in different periodicals; a History of Prairie Township, Jewell county, Kansas, published in the Jewell County Republican; and this Genealogy of the Seaton family. There is also in course of construction, as opportunity offers, a series of stories of army life as seen by a private in the rear rank and a corporal, and a book of quotations composed of interesting statements found in the writer's reading.

As a matter of gossip, which the greater part of this book is, and which does very well within the family but is decidedly poor business outside of that holy tribunal, it might be mentioned that the soldier-boy was more than once offered a commission while in the army, but very foolishly refused it because he thought one so young and inexperienced ought not to be put in command over older men with whom he had been associated all of his life, and who were much better fitted to command than a seventeen-year-old boy.

It might also be allowable to mention the fact that he was the Master of three different Granges of Patrons of Husbandry while granges were the fashion among farmers; that he is a Republican in politics, and a brother-in-law to the Methodists in religious matters; that is, he married a Methodist lady, and considers it the best day's work he ever did.

While in the army he took part in the battles of the Weldon Railroad, the Jerusalem Plank Road, Hatch's Run, and was in at the taking of Petersburg, and was on the way to Richmond when the assassination of President Lincoln occurred and the war came to an end.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE CHILDREN OF ANDREW P. AND LAURA A. SEATON (CONTINUED).

JAMES HENRY SEATON, the second son in the family, was born July 2, 1849, at Henderson, New York, where he passed his youth attending the village school and enjoying all of the pleasures that came in his way. He was naturally sociable, fun-loving, and purse-free. He could find more to laugh at in a day than some others could in a week. He made friends wherever he happened to be, and apparently without effort. When he was sent to the field to hoe corn he was sure to need rest every time he came out to the fence where another boy was doing like work in an adjoining field, and he would become so interested in the conversation of his company that it was nothing uncommon for him to sit on the fence visiting while his brother would hoe another round.

His father once summed up his predominant traits of character by saying that he was always laughing, whistling or crying, when he was a small boy.

When James was grown to man's estate, he took to the water as naturally as a catfish to mud. He was a sailor on the Great Lakes for several seasons, spending his winters around Henderson, Watertown, Rutland, and vicinity, often spending all of the wages of the previous season before the winter was over. He seemed to care nothing for money, except as it could add to his and his friends' pleasure.

One winter, while enjoying himself around Rutland sleighriding, dancing, skating, etc., he made the acquaintance of Francelia Alma Cotton, with whom he was afterward spliced, as the sailors say. Miss Cotton was born December 26, 1848, at or near Rutland, New York, and was married to the sailor-boy at Black River, New York, on August 22, 1872.

When he had a family James quit the lakes and tried his hand at

farming near Floyd, Floyd county, Iowa, where the family had located.

After an indifferent experience as an Iowa agriculturist, he set sail in a prairie schooner for sunny Kansas, to embark in the sodhouse line of wheat- and stock-raisers. After waiting eighteen months for his first wheat crop to heave in sight, after it was sown, and when they had eaten everything they brought with them, without raising even a mouthful, they again hoisted anchor and set sail

in their mover-wagons, steering their course back to Iowa as a sure haven; but there they again met adverse winds, and in course of time hove about and started a voyage of discovery over the billowy prairies of Nebraska. They finally landed at Wallace, in Lincoln county, where they had their port of refuge for a number of years. They had a comfortable home in town, and a halfsection of land not far away.

James has always been a lover of fine horses and has owned a good many, some of which were well bred and excellent roadsters. One of his admirable conceits has always been that he did not intend to starve himself nor his team to death while going from

one town to the next, and he never did the like if his team was able to make the distance on time with what encouragement he was able to give it, though it should be understood that he soon disposed of horses that needed to be urged to do their best, and that he was a good feeder and care-taker of his horses as well as of himself and his family.

During his eventful life, James has tried several different lines of business with the intention of making his fortune, having at different times been a sailor and a farmer, as has been stated; then he was remarkably successful at collecting bad debts for others for some years; has operated a livery stable, a natural outgrowth of his love for fine driving-horses; has doctored horses for those in need of such help; been the undertaker for all the country round, at no expense to anyone except himself; sold and set up agricultural implements and machinery. At the present writing he is superintendent of a line of creamery stations extending over four hundred miles of railroad lines in western and southern Nebraska. He owns a two-hundred-acre farm, where he lives, and enough other land to bring his holdings up to a thousand acres of Nebraska prairie farm-land.

James and "Frank," as he calls his wife, have raised quite a family of fine, bright children, among whom are now living, Hattie Maybelle; Charles Andrew; Laura Pearl; James Henry 2d; and Merton Robert. The children who have died are: Gertrude Alma; Kittie Isabelle; Perry Albert; and Cassie May, We may have more to say of these children further along in this book.

FRANKLIN PIERCE SEATON was born at Henderson, New York, on March 8, 1852, and died April 6, 1853.

GEORGE FERGUSON SEATON, named for his uncle, George Ferguson, was born January 21, 1854, at Henderson, New York. He is the heavy-weight of all our branch of the family since his greatgrandfather, Asa Seaton, whom he resembles in having dark hair and being large in person.

George is a great stay-at-home practitioner. It is doubtful if he was away from home over-night of his own volition, except on