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Eli Seely

Personal

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: June 1, 1832

Date of Death: January 8, 1917

Birth Place: Deerfield Township, PA

Death Place: Oshkosh, WI

Eli Seely

PIONEER IS REMOVED

Resident of Oshkosh for the Last Sixty-Two Years is Dead at the Age of Nearly Ninety-Five – Was Civil War Veteran – Had Been in Masonic Order for Sixty-Seven Years – Funeral.

One of the oldest residents of Oshkosh in point of years, and one of the first of the pioneer group to locate here, was removed last night in the passing of Eli Seely. The aged contractor died at 10 o’clock after a long decline, the end coming at the home of the late William F. Stillman, 908 Jackson street. Mrs. William F. Stillman was a daughter of Mr. Seely.

Eli Seely had been identified with the history of Oshkosh and vicinity for sixty-two years, coming from the east in 1855. He would have been ninety-five years of age next spring.

Mr. Seely was a native of Deerfield, Tioga county, Pa., and was born June 1, 1832. He was reared on a farm at Deerfield, where he obtained most of his schooling, later going to Alfred academy, Alfred, N.Y. for further studies. He came to Oshkosh in May 1855, and was occupied with farming, contracting and building through many years, being absent for only a short period spent in Colorado. During the civil war he was a private in Company D, Thirty-second Wisconsin infantry, until 1868, when he was disabled and honorably discharged.

Returning to Oshkosh, as soon as sufficiently recovered, he resumed his contracting business and was active in the building trade about the county and state until eighteen or nineteen years ago. Mr. Seely was identified with the interest of the Democratic party in Oshkosh and also with the Masonic lodge of which he was one of the oldest Wisconsin members. He held charter membership in Kane lodge No. 61 of Neenah, which lodge celebrated his fiftieth anniversary as Master Mason in 1909. He preserved broad interest in all questions of the day up to the last and a diary which he kept for over fifty years registered accurately affairs of interest and note locality in that extended period.

Mr. Seely marriage with Miss Sarah Curtis of Deerfield, Pa took place on Christmas Day, 1842, and his wife was also among the best known of the early Oshkosh residents. After her death in 1895, Mr. Seely went to live with his daughter, Mrs. Stillman. He survived all his children, Mrs. Stillman died nearly eleven years ago. There are four living grandchildren, William T. Stillman, (illegiable) Church street, Miss Gladys Stillman,298 Jackson street; Miss Sophia Hall, also of this city and Walter Goss of Melbourne, Wash. Five great-grandchildren , William Mead Stillman, son of W.T. Stillman and four children of Mr. Goss also survive.

The funeral services are to be held tomorrow afternoon from the Jackson street home at 2:30 o’clock, with interment at Riverside cemetery. Rev. Edward H. Smith will be the officiating minister. The request is made to omit flowers.

Published in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, (Oshkosh, WI) January 9, 1917 front page

[Eli is SGS # 2564 – Eli Todd (# 2564); Eleazer (# 924); Ebenezer, Justus; John; Benjamin; Nathaniel; Robert]

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