St. Johnsville New York Enterprise and News

June 14, 1933

Editor of the Enterprise:

In your May 31 issue Mr. Edward J. Seeber of Rochester, N.Y. asks for information about the Seebers and their descendants.

Frontiersman of N.Y. Vol 11 page 342 gives the following:

"William Seeber who had a store about half a mile to the westward of Fort Plain where the farm dwelling now stands was trading here before the French war in the palmy days of Sir William Johnson. He was evidently proprietor of many of the name in this part of the state. He came hither with a wife taken in the fatherland by whom he had 4 sons, Adolph, Jacob, William and Conrad and two daughters Magdalene and Caty who married respectively Frederick Bell and Adam Klock. By his second marriage, this was a Miss Walrath, he had three sons, Henry, John(known as Esquire John) and Adam and two daughters Marilles who married Peter Young Esq. and a daughter May Elizabeth who never married. These seven sons were all grown up and married before the war (Revolution) if we except probably one or two of the youngest

William Seeber Sr. and his two sons Adolph and Jacob were in the Oriskany battle in which Adolph was slain and his father and brother mortally wounded. Adolph the oldest son was then a widower. The widow of this William Seeber afterwards married John Rolfe who lived at the Boght a small Dutch settlement near the present city of Cohea.

Bell and Klock were both engaged in the Johnstown battle in the fall of 1781 in which the former was mortally wounded with a bullet through his lungs The second William Seeber herein mentioned was also in the engagement."

Mrs Bell was left with two small children, Betsy who afterwards married George Fox and Christiana who became the wife of George Wiefendorf.

Adam Klock returned to his family at the close of the war but was never again a welcome guest among his patriotic relatives.

This narrative was obtained from William H. Seeber a grandson of the second son William Seeber named in the context.

(Page 32) Peter Young by his first wife Marelles ( apparently a German contraction for Mary Elizabeth) had five daughters and three sons Jacob, William and Abram. The daughters were Elizabeth who married David Lipe, Caty who married Andrew Coppernoll, Polly whose fate we record, Nancy who married John Charleswort and Peggy who married Lyman Howard.

Mrs William H. Seeber was Nancy Failing, a daughter of Henry Failing whose ancestors came from Germany.

Vol. 1 page 573 mentions that the land where Fort Plain stood was owned during the Revolution by Johannes Lipe, who married Elizabeth Seeber.

Adam Klock who married Caty Seeber and received much criticism and hatred through the fact of his father's prominence, Col. Jacob Klock and the fact that he joined a small party of young men who left the Mohawk valley in July, 1781 in protest against the repeated failures to aid the local militia and went to Canada returning at the time of the battle of Johnstown in which he evidently was inactive-in October of the same year, had a son Jacob who apparently moved to Jefferson County, New York. Haddock's History of Jefferson Jefferson county N.Y. gives a sketch of Henry D. Klock of Orleans who was a son of Adam and grandson of Jacob Adam who came from Herkimer county in 1846.

Frothingham's history of Montgomery county page 28 of Family Sketches gives a sketch of H. Clay Seeber , a descendant of Adolphus which contains the following information:

William Seeber great grandfather, born June 13, 1747 married Elizabeth Schuerr, born in Germany, Oct. 17, 1764 parents of Adolphus (evidently not one killed at Oriskany four years later) born 1773 who married Sally P. Yates of Canajoharie, daughter of Col. C.P. Yates. They were the parents of eight children of whom William A., the second son was the father of H. Clay. William A. Seeber was born Jan. 1, 1805, married Catherine M. Van Vechten, Jan 23, 1841 and they were parents of five children, Annie, wife of Judge Finn of San Francisco; Lucinda of Canajoharie; Celia, wife of George T. Finn; Chester, a lawyer of San Francisco and the above H. Clay who married Dec. 23, 1875 Alice T. Van Evra of Canajoharie. They had 3 children. Herbert V. born Nov. 4, 1877; Florence W. born Dec. 117, 1879 and Elizabeth born May 31, 1881.

Also Vol. II page 491:

Henry Seeber son of pioneer William Seeber by his second marriage is believed to have married Elizabeth, a daughter of John Lough by whom he had two children Jacob and Polly.

Polly married Abram Lipe.

Henry , the father, became dissipated and his wife becoming attached to Col. Marinus Willett while he was stationed at Fort Plain and by him had a son Marinus Willett Seeber.

Also page 492 footnote: "William H. Seeber, Fort Plain, born May 29, 1791 died in the spring of 1881 in the 90th year of his age, was a great grandson of William Seeber Sr. His grandfather Wm. Seeber, third son of Wm. Seeber Sr. by his first wife married Elizabeth Snarron. His father Henry Seeber married Eve, a daughter of Thomas Casler. William H. Seeber had two wives Elizabeth and Nancy Failing, daughters of Henry Failing and Catharine Dygert, Daughter of Warner Dygert who was killed by the Indians at Fall Hill.

I trust this information will be of use to Mr. Seeber. I personally would like to know more about Col. Jacob Klock's son Adam and his descendants.

Very truly,

MILO NELLIS

Copied from an article printed in the ENTERPRISE and NEWS on June 14, 1933

By Marcia Seeber Alary

from the records of Wendell Seeber

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