Person Page - 566

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

ISLAND FALLS – William W. Sewall II, 89, died Oct. 15, 2007, at Mount Heights Nursing Home. He was born March 31, 1918, in Island Falls, the son of Fred S. and Phyllis (Garvarich) Sewall. He was married to Cleo (Price) who survives him. Bill served in the Army Artillery as a high-speed radio operator. He farmed with his father and cut hardwood logs until 1962, when he went to work for Maine Public Service Co. He retired from Maine Public in 1980. For many years Bill was a deputy sheriff for Aroostook and Penobscot County sheriff’s departments. He was an accomplished cabinetmaker and made many fine pieces of furniture for his relatives and friends. Bill was a victim of Parkinson’s disease and spent the last few years of his life at Mount Heights Rest Home, Patten. He leaves two sons, William W. Sewall III and his wife, Joyce, of Washburn, and David O. Sewall and his companion, Jill Willett, of Dyer Brook; five grandchildren, Lynne Bokovosky and friend, Kim Vincent, of Somersworth, N.H., David D. and his wife, Kim, of East Millinococket, Levi S. and his wife, Andrea, of Hermon, Heidi Prentice and her husband, Rob, of Rochester, N.H., and William W. Sewall IV and his wife, Ruth, of Bangor; eight great-grandchildren; one sister, Mary C. Sewall of Houlton; and one brother, George Sewall of Caribou Veterans’ Home. He was predeceased by his parents; and one sister, Elizabeth Schurman of Island Falls.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.