George Seely
Personal
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: 1835
Date of Death: December 14, 1901
Birth Place: Wyoming, PA
Death Place: St. Louis, MO
George Seely
GEORGE SEELY DEAD
The Galveston Financier Dies on a Train at St. Louis
While on His Way to New York to Adjust the island City’s Bonded Debt
(Special to the Picayune.)
Galveston, Tex., Dec. 14. – George Seely, president of the Wharf Company, and a prominent banker, died on a train at St. Louis to-day while en route to New York, to assist in adjusting Galveston’s bonded indebtedness.
George Seely was born in Wyoming, Lucerne county, Pa., in 1835. He received a common school education. In 1858 he came to Galveston and entered the employ of Ball, Hutchings & Co., in a clerical capacity, his elder brother, John being the junior member of the firm, which was doing a general merchandising and commission business. Soon after entering the employ of the firm he added the banking feature, which since the civil war has become the sole business of the firm, which is recognized throughout the financial world as one of the soundest monetary institutions of the south, and is a monument to the sagacity and business acumen of Mr. Seely. In 1868, he was admitted to a full partnership in the firm, and had direction of its financial affairs. In 1878, when the original Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway Company stranded, after constructing about sixty miles of railway, he, in co-operation with his brother, formed a syndicate of local capitalists, which purchased the property and franchises of the original company, reorganized the company, by the election of John Seely, as president, and through their joint efforts built and equipped the road from Galveston to Fort Worth and San Antonio and when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe were seeking a gulf outlet, extended it north to Purcell, there forming a connection with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. His brother dying in 1885, Mr. Seely succeeded him as president, and served as such until the line was amalgamated with the Atchison, since which time he has filled the position of second vice president of the Atchison system. At the time of his death he was president of the Galveston Wharf Company, Texas Land and Loan Company, Texas Investment and Trust Company, treasurer of the Galveston Cotton Exchange, Galveston school board and a director of various other corporations and organizations, too numerous to mention, and when stricken, was en route to New York as one of a committee to bring about the readjustment of the city’s bonded indebtedness. He was a man of broad views, excellent judgment, an able financier and upright, progressive citizen, whose death is a deplorable loss to the city at this particular juncture.
He was married in 1875 to Miss Rebecca Willis, who, with four daughters and three sons, survive. The announcement of Mr. Seely’s sudden death fell like a pall on the city, as he was universally beloved by all.
Mr. Seely left Galveston Thursday in company with I.H. Kempner and R. Waverly Smith, also members of the committee. The conference was to take place in New York on Dec. 17. Death was from heart failure and occurred beyond St. Louis.
The remains will reach Galveston Monday morning.
The entire committee abandoned the New York trip and are returning with the remains.
Published in The Daily Picayune, (New Orleans, LA) December 15, 1901 page 7
