Charles W. Seeley. The art of printing, invented by Gutenberg, developed by Benjamin Franklin and brought to perfection by modern masters of the craft is highly exemplified by the skill and ingenuity of the craftsmen employed in the plant of the Rosenthal-Seeley Printing Company, of Evansville. Charles W. Seeley, secretary and treasurer of the firm, is a practical printer who learned his trade at the case and whose experience has covered every phase of the printing business. He was born July 23, 1871, at Covington, Kentucky, and is a son of Edgar Deacon and Missouri Jane (Walker) Seeley. Mr. Seeley’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Thomas Fall, was the proprietor of a paper mill at Lee, Massachusetts, and in that town was born Mr. Seeley’s maternal grandmother. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Walker, was a native of Ayrshire, Scotland. George Seeley, the paternal grandfather of Charles W., was born in England, and came to the United States in young manhood. Edgar Deacon Seeley was born at Horsehead, New York, March 21, 1847, and when about twenty years of age moved to Covington, Kentucky, where he met and married Missouri Jane Walker, who was born at St. Louis, Missouri, January 20, 1851. Mr. Seeley was a shoemaker by trade and followed that vocation until elected constable of Covington, a position which he held for a number of years. Later he moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where he embarked in the mercantile business, and resided there until his death in 1917. Mrs. Seeley still survives and is a resident of Youngstown. Charles W. Seeley received a common school education at Covington, where he secured his introduction to the printing business in the printing shop of a newspaper at the age of fourteen years. When fifteen years of age he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was employed in a job shop, but when seventeen years of age returned to Covington, where his father had purchased a press and type and Charles W. Seeley and his brother established a small printing business, known as Seeley Brothers. This venture not proving a great success, Mr. Seeley went to Kansas City, where he worked for one year, returning to Covington, going then again to Cincinnati, and finally locating at Akron, Ohio, where he worked for the Werner Works one year. His next location was Nashville, Tennessee, where he spent a year with the Brandon Printing Company, then coming to Evansville in 1901, to become foreman and superintendent of the Crescent Engraving and Printing Company. He spent several years in the employ of this concern and then became foreman of the composing room of the Speed Printing and Publishing Company. Some time later he started the business of the Speed Printing Company, in the McCurdy Building, and at the time of Mr. Weil’s death, Mr. Seeley and a fellow employe, Henry Rosenthal, bought out the business, which they renamed the Rosenthal-Seeley Printing Company, of which Mr. Rosenthal is now president and Mr. Seeley secretary and treasurer. The business has enjoyed a health and consistent growth and occupies a leading place among the enterprises of Evansville. Mr. Seeley has been secretary of the Kiwanis Club since its organization in 1918. He is president of the Forum of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was elected a director in 1923. Fraternally, he is a York Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. His political views make him a Republican. April 7, 1897, Mr. Seeley married Miss Nina Irene Lachanter, a French Canadian by birth, and they have had two children: Cathryn Walker; and William Arthur, the latter of whom whas born November 29, 1902, and died October 14, 1918.

Pages 446-447, “An Account of Vanderburgh County from its Organization” edited by John E. Iglehart, published by Dayton Historical Publishing Co., Dayton, Ohio, 1923.