tance down the river and swam in that direction. He soon heard his wife's voice calling, "Man overboard!" so he continued to swim down the river in the direction of the voice. He became greatly exhausted and could make but slow progress toward overtaking his boat and family that were floating with the current, his clothing hampering his movements and making his efforts almost of no avail, but by great efforts and persistence he finally overtook the boat and was carefully helped on board. He said afterward that if the pole that was reached to him had been carelessly pulled from him, he would not have been able to swim any longer and must have drowned.

From New Orleans he took his family by sailing-vessel to Boston, Massachusetts, and from there they went to Amherst, New Hampshire, to visit his parents and relatives, after an absence of about thirteen years. His parents, and brothers Nathan Kendall and Ambrose, were then living at Amherst.

On their return to their home they went by way of the lakes and stopped at Niagara Falls, where they saw a vessel containing live animals and geese sent over the falls for a show, gotten up to attract visitors to the falls.

It was upon his return from this trip, in 1827, that Samuel Seaton began his career as a merchant, which business he continued to manage successfully until his death. He was a Whig in politics, and was twice a member of the Kentucky Legislature, in 1833 and in 1846. He was the author of the law passed in 1847, called the "Seaton act," which secures to married women certain property inherited or given to them separate from their husbands.

Samuel Seaton was engaged in many enterprises: In 1847, at an expense of about five thousand dollars, he built a large stone dam twelve feet high across Little Sandy river at the falls one mile from the Ohio river, and a large mill. In the same year he commenced building a large charcoal iron furnace twelve miles westerly from Greenup, in the same county, on a tract of twenty thousand six hundred and twenty-six acres of land-the Thomas Keith patent-which he had bought of the heirs of Thomas Keith, who was before his death a paymaster in the Revolutionary War,

and was an uncle of Chief Justice John Marshall, of the United States Supreme Court. The furnace was completed and in blast in November, 1849, at a cost of fifty thousand dollars, and was named the "New Hampshire," after his native State. He died of lung fever, at the furnace, on the 29th of March, 1850, and was first buried there, but afterwards his remains were removed to the Seaton family burial-ground on the hill back of Greenup. All gave him the name of being a "friend to the poor," an honest man. His will is a pattern of brevity, and shows the great respect and confidence he reposed in his wife. It is as follows:

"I bequeath to my wife Hannah Eddy Seaton all my estate, real, personal and mixed, rights, credits, moneys and effects; and I appoint my said wife my sole executrix without security, and desire that no bond be taken nor oath administered. SAM. SEATON."

Samuel Seaton began to trace the genealogy of his family at the time of his visit to Massachusetts in 1827, receiving some assistance at that time from his father, mother and others, but his father's sister, Mrs. Anna Duncan, who was the daughter of John and Ismenia Seaton, gave him the most help. He continued to collect material, as opportunity offered, for the remainder of his life, all of which was given to his son, John of Greenup, through the kindness of whom we are allowed to reproduce it here. Samuel was satisfied from his researches that there was originally only one family of the name, though some spell the name differently.

His son John, who continued to investigate the family history, and has added considerably to what his father had accumulated, has found no reason to believe otherwise than his father did on this point, and the writer of this book is more and more convinced that all Seatons are descended from the same common ancestor.

Samuel Seaton was personally acquainted with Samuel W. Seton, of New York, an uncle to Archbishop Robert Seton, who was Superintendent of Schools in New York city between 1838 and 1842, and was told by him much concerning the Seatons, ancient and modern, and especially that they were originally all of one family.

He was also personally acquainted with William Winston

Seaton, of Washington, D. C., and his partner, Joseph Gales, publishers of the National Intelligencer newspaper under the firm-name of Gales & Seaton, Seaton having married a sister of Gales. He took their newspaper up to the time of his death, and his son, John of Greenup, continued to take it until publication was discontinued by that firm. As Samuel had been well acquainted with them, he corresponded with William Winston Seaton concerning the family, and sent him a copy of the Seaton coat of arms in 1858.

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE CHILDREN OF JOHN 3D AND REBECCA (KENDALL) SEATON (CONTINUED).

AMBROSE SEATON, son of John and Rebecca, was born at Amherst, New Hampshire, on September 27, 1804. He graduated from college in 1825, and was Town Clerk in Amherst in 1829. He was proficient in music, teaching it successfully and leading the choir in their church, as his father had done before him. But medicine was his chosen profession, and he practiced it with honor and profit in Amherst, New Hampshire, in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Maysville, Kentucky, while he lived in each city.

Mary Rand Goss was born in Amherst in the same year that Ambrose Seaton was, and more than likely they were schoolmates there. However that may be, they were married in Amherst on November 12, 1828, by Jeremiah Barnard.

Ambrose and Mary Seaton had the following children: 1. Mary Elizabeth; 2. John Ambrose; 3. Nathan Kendall; 4. Helen Augusta; 5. Ann Martha; 6. Sarah Frances; and 7. Charles Stewart. Of these children, Nathan K., Ann Martha and Sarah Frances died young.

While Ambrose lived at Amherst and led the choir in the Presbyterian Church he had an experience that has been reported to us by Miss Charlotte H. Abbott, of Andover. It appears that "when Rev. Silas Aiken was ordained, after Doctor Lord had resigned in 1828 at the close of his term, the choir had some kind of a misunderstanding, and struck, leaving young Ambrose in the singers' seats alone. A hymn was read, but there were no singers in the choir. The senior deacon, equal to the occasion, rose and led off with Saint Martin's, and, some of the congregation joining in, a good all-around service of song was enjoyed. Ambrose, in vexation, probably because the choir had failed him, rushed down

the gallery stairs two steps at a time and off to his boardinghouse."

Ambrose Seaton moved from Amherst to Boston in 1830, where he practiced his chosen profession. He also taught music and led the choir of the Unitarian Church on Purchase street while living there. From Boston he moved to Maysville, Kentucky, where he continued the healing art and led the choir in the Presbyterian Church. He died in Maysville on April 9, 1866. Mary R. (Goss) Seaton was born March 25, 1804, and died July 4, 1863.

THE CHILDREN OF ANDREW AND POLLY (BOWERS) SEATON. MARY E. SEATON was born in Merrimack, August 14, 1790, and died on September 24 of that year.

JAMES SEATON, son of Andrew and Polly, was born in Nottingham West, March 31, 1792. He was a Clerk in the Navy Yard at Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the early part of the Nineteenth century, during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren. While there he owned a metallic plate of the Seaton coat of arms that was brought from Scotland, from which many prints were struck off and distributed in the family. He is reported never to have known the happiness of married life, but to have died single at Charlestown, June 2, 1834.

ISMENIA SEATON, the third child of Andrew and Polly, was born in Nottingham West, on September 10, 1793, and died in 1870. There is a record of the fact that Ismenia Seaton was published to James Moore of Charlestown on December 19, 1815, and in "our intentions," Miss Charlotte H. Abbott of Andover writes: "I find James Moore, of Charlestown, published to Ismenia Seatown on January 7, 1816. A little later they were married here." Evidently here was a little tragedy in real life-a regular lovers' quarrel, that was made up after a short interval. They moved to Medina, Ohio, and it was through their efforts that Ismenia's father was persuaded to move his family to the same place some time later. They are said to have had no children.

JOHN SEATON, son of Andrew and Polly, was born at Hancock,