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Shelley Dziedzic
Moderator
Username: shelley
Post Number: 1315
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 10:11 pm: | 
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While hunting up Newport photos for the convention-here's a timely one of Fred with his grand daughter Katherine taken in the early 20's in Newport Harbor-almost a repeat of a similar scene from 1912 with the Gibson girls in that lifeboat! Katherine still has his tuxedo from Titanic- not for sale or photographing at any price! She lives in Massachusetts and I hope she may be able to attend the convention. The Sewards liked to summer in Cape Cod and Newport. Made a nice change from Manhattan in the summer. Katherine wrote " He was a handsome, robust redfaced guy with twinkly eyes and what he called a high forehead, handlebar mustache and a short beard that he grew for the 1912 trip to Greece because he looked so very young for a corporation lawyer. After the Titanic sank, my grandfather got crank calls for having survived and my mother said he never spoke much about it until one night cruising with my parents off Vineyard Haven... and said 'This is like the night Titanic went down'."
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Shelley Dziedzic
Moderator
Username: shelley
Post Number: 1316
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 10:29 pm: |
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Fred looks a bit like a young Marshall Drew I always thought. I wonder what his minister father thought of card-playing? While at the Tennis Hall of Fame I thought of him with Dot and her mom and Will Sloper- there was a tableau at the Casino of 1912-vintage cardplayers. I wonder who was winning that night at the table in 1912?! Recently I read Fred was related to William Seward, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State- his great -uncle. A nice touch on President's Day! |
Inger Sheil
Moderator
Username: isheil
Post Number: 1521
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 10:38 pm: |
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How bizarre...I was just going to ask the very question you answered in your post, Shelley, when I saw the title of your thread - was Frederick Seward related to Frederick Seward, the son of William Seward. Frederick was, if I remember correctly, very badly injured during the assassination attempt on his father which occured at the same time as the successful assassination of Lincoln (the night of 14 April 1865...another coincidence). He lay in a coma for some time. Frederick Seward acted as his father's secretary. I've always had rather a soft spot for William Seward out of all Lincoln's cabinet.
Do you know what the exact connection was? |
Shelley Dziedzic
Moderator
Username: shelley
Post Number: 1317
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 10:57 pm: |
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It gets a bit dicey, so I will just quote from Katherine's letter on geneology " My Grandfather's father was the 3rd child of William H. Seward's brother George (born 4/16/1838-died 2/22/1916) Titanic's Frederic (spelled without the final k) was then the son of Samuel Seward whose father George was William H.'s brother. Titanic Fred was then the great-nephew of William H. who was indeed nearly killed by an assassination attempt on the same night Lincoln was shot- wow- you could not WRITE this stuff! Actually Inger- I think the veil is thin and our psychic powers are on overdrive tonight! Must be the blizzard. |
Inger Sheil
Moderator
Username: isheil
Post Number: 1523
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 6:55 am: |
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Right...got that! (I think...) Well, it answers a question that's been rattling around the head for some time. You're absolutely right - no one could invent this sort of material. Many thanks! |
Shelley Dziedzic
Moderator
Username: shelley
Post Number: 1321
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 6:05 pm: |
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Mr. Seward and Grandaughter Katherine- sorry, I mixed up the captions- the pretty girl in the boat photo above is also Katherine (Seward Gardner) his daughter, - both were named Katherine. He looks like a doting Grandpa! |
Randy Bryan Bigham
Member
Username: rbigham
Post Number: 920
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, November 19, 2004 - 9:09 pm: |
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Shelley:
Does the family recall anything about Dorothy Gibson? Or would that be too "dicey" to share? As you may know, apart from their experiences on Titanic, which bonded them, Dorothy and Pauline were members of the same church to which Fred belonged.
Randy |
Shelley Dziedzic
Moderator
Username: shelley
Post Number: 2124
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 9:25 pm: |
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Looking back through all the notes we have on Fred, other than his Herald interview where he acknowledges playing cards with "friends" and owing his life to being with these ladies at the right spot at the right time, there's no further written specific mention of Dot and Pauline later on. He, like other First Class men saved, received many critical letters, and probably did not want to make too much of card-playing on a Sunday night. He knew the Gibsons, of course, from the congregation (Presbyterian I think), but sad to say, no correspondence or family recollections exist of any continued relationship after the sinking. |
Daniel Klistorner
Member
Username: danielr
Post Number: 1147
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 10:49 pm: |
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Shelley,
Having booked within a couple of days of Titanic's sailing, he is not on the Cave List. I was wondering whether there are any family recollections or other information which would help identify which cabin Seward was in -- or at least which deck his cabin was on?
Regards,
Daniel. |
