Person Page - 544

ALTON, Ill. July 30, - William J. Sewall, retired Carthage, Mo., publisher, was married to Mrs. Jean Taggart here Saturday night. The wedding was held at the upper Alton Baptist church. The Rev. LaRue Jensen performed the ceremony. Sewall retired as publisher of the Carthage Evening Press several years ago. He is a former president of the Missouri Press Association and a former chairman of the Associated Press members of Missouri, in 1937 the University of Missouri honored him for distinguished service in journalism. Mrs. Taggart resigned last week as a member of the Alton Evening Telegraph which she joined following the death of her husband, who was a brother of the first Mrs. Sewall. Mexico Evening Ledger, July 30, 1951.^4,5

     The funeral of William Key Sewall, eighteen years old, who died at Millers, Nev., Feb. 11, will be held from the home of his parents, Mr and Mrs. R.H.F. Sewall, 1238 St. Andrew street, at 2 o'clock this afternoon.
     The deceased was the descendant of two old, distinguished Southern families - the Sewall family of Maryland and the Nelson family of Virginia. The first ancestor on the Sewall side of the family who came to America was the stepson of Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore. Robert Sewall, the grandfather of the deceased, came to Louisiana when quite a young man and engaged in the sugar planting business operating under the firm name of Sewall, Johnson & Key.
     William Key Sewall is remembered here as a bright, handsome boy, whose sunny disposition and courtesy endeared him to all who knew him. Besides his mother and father, he leaves two sisters, Misses Evelina and Ethel Sewall, and three brothers. R.H.F. Sewall, Jr., James Nelson Sewall and Paul Hébert Sewall.¹

William Winter Sewall enrolled at Illinois College in 1853 and graduated in 1856. He was a member of Sigma Pi Literary Society. Following graduation, he moved to Virden, a new township in Macoupin county, about 20 miles south-east of Jacksonville which had been laid out only four years prior. He married Susan E. Cox of Virden, Il on December 9, 1858 and they had four children. A carpenter by trade, William was engaged in contracting and building, erecting many structures near Virden, including the edifice of the First Presbyterian church.
In 1862 William enlisted as a volunteer in the Union army and served for three years. He was shot through the leg in an attack on Fort Blakely, a confederate stronghold near Mobile, Ala., a conflict which owing to the slowness of communication of the period, was fought after Lee had surrendered to Grant and the war was already won. He was discharged and returned home after some three months in Sedgwick hospital in New Orleans.
Soon thereafter William was engaged in the flour milling business until he and his family moved to Carthage, Missouri in 1885 where he had a ten acre tract well set to fruit, just south of the city, which he started in 1886. It was then bare prairie but he built a large house and planted 1,000 fruit trees. These were chiefly pears and apples of the Duchess and Ben Davis varieties. He also had about five acres in small fruits in a flourishing condition and high state of cultivation, giving promise of fine crops. He expected to employ from 40 to 50 hands during the picking season and shipped with the Carthage Fruit Exchange, being one of the organizers thereof.

His military record notes that he was appointed 2nd Lt AGD Oct. 17/17 fr CL. 1st Lt May 16/18. Org: Statis Div AGO to disch. Overseas service: None. Hon disch for conv of Govt: Oct. 27, 1919.⁷

"Willis F. Sewall received his early education in the town schools of his birth-place and at Wilton Academy, Wilton, Maine, and Westbrook Seminary, Deering, Maine, graduating from the former in 1883 and from the latter in 1886. These institutions were preparatory schools, and after completing his studies therein Mr. Sewall attended Tufts College at Medford, Mass., from which he graduated in 1890, with a degree of Bachelor of Arts. He held the preparatory school prize scholarship for high rank throughout his college course. He was editor-in-chief of the Class Annual in his junior year at Tufts College, by choice of the faculty. He was instructor in French and English composition and assistant Librarian at Tufts College during the two years following his graduation, and he entered the Albany (N.Y.) Library School, in the fall of 1892.
He served as indexer to the New York State Commission in Lunacy, in 1893-4; was cataloguer of the Sauppe Collection of Classical Philology in the Bryn Mawr College Library, in 1894-5, and librarian of the Wilmington (Del.) Institute Free Library, from 1895 to 1899, when he returned to Maine in poor health. In the winter of 1902-03, he served as cataloguer at the Grolier Club Library in New York City, from the last named place he came to Toledo, Sept. 1, 1903, and in the position of librarian of the Toledo Public Library he has rendered efficient service and performed the duties thereof in a manner entirely satisfactory to all. In politics, Mr. Sewall gives allegiance to the men and measures of the Republican party."