Joseph Owen Seely

A Tribute to a Friend

Mr. Joseph Owen Seely, Sr., was born in Bedford, Westchester Co., N.Y., Nov. 8, 1796, and died in Onondaga, Onondaga Co., N.Y., Dec. 20, 1879.

The parents of the subject of this sketch, when he was but one and one-half years of age, moved with their young family near to the spot from which he went to heaven. Hence, all the diversified phases of an early pioneer are to be found in the life of our departed friend and father. On the beautiful and fertile acres of the “Seely Flats”, within the compass of his life, luxuriant forests grew and wild beasts roamed at pleasure, making night hideous with their untamable notes. He was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church when about twenty one years old, and in its communion he remained for more than sixty-two years, and substantially a member of the same society. He was twice married, his last wife surviving him. Ten living children, educated in the best schools of Central New York, and all honored citizens of this and other States, are the best possible monuments of his worth.

Bro. Seely, as a man, was universally respected by his acquaintances for the integrity of his character. I was honored by his friendship from my boyhood and reared near his home, and I have scarcely known a more unblemished life. As a Christian, he lived without reproach. He was unusually faithful in his attendance upon the means of grace; and on account of the failure of his hearing, long after he ceased to hear the preacher, his place was rarely vacant in public worship or in the class meeting. By his liberality to the poor and to the church of his choice, as well as by provisions in his last will to various benevolent enterprises, he established a character for beneficence. Thus he sought heaven by making earth like it. His religious life was marked for its simplicity and earnestness. Few men are found more decided in their religious experience and yet fewer still as free from ostentation. While he had not been reared in a Methodist family, yet from his conversion to his death his church home was among that people and their reverses and triumphs were his own. Believing in its doctrines and usages, he with an intelligent faith always maintained a loyalty to it. But still a catholicity of spirit and feeling characterized the life of this good man. In maintaining his own faith he respected the faith and rights of others. Practically and in theory he was a staunch friend of education, placing its advantages in the front rank of life’s qualifications. While giving largely of his possessions directly to his household, he will be remembered pre-eminently by loved ones for the earnestness he displayed in stamping upon them the bias of a religious and literary education and training. A kind father and a true and affectionate husband has ceased to lived on earth, for God has taken him to Himself.

The Methodist Episcopal Church at South Onondaga will miss another one of its most worthy members. But he has joined the bloodwashed and is with them, dear brethren, with whom he has sweetly lived and labored and prayed and triumphed. His end, as might be expected, was peaceful. His remains were deposited in a cemetery recently his own, to await the resurrection of the just.

E. LANSING NEWMAN
Rochester, N.Y., Jan. 5, 1880

[SGS #3100 – Joseph Owen (#3100); Gideon (#1332); Gideon; John S.; Obadiah; Obadiah; Obadiah]