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MAURICE J. SEED.
The press of Jefferson county has a particularly able representative in the person of Maurice J. Seed, for the past ten years the owner and editor of the Mount Vernon Daily and Weekly Register, the exponent of Republicanism in that county. Since Mr. Seed assumed ownership and control of the paper it has increased in its efficiency and popularity until it is today one of the most reliable publications in the county.
Maurice J. Seed is the son of Thomas H. and Emma (Pope) Seed. He was born December 31, 1871, at Lawrenceville, Lawrence county, Illinois, and was there reared. His father was a native of Lawrence county, born there June 12, 1843. He was ever a man of action, and during the Civil war he served as sergeant in Company A, of the Sixty-third Illinois Infantry. He was with Grant at the siege and capture of Vicksburg, and took part in the Atlanta campaign under General Sherman, participating in the �march to the sea� and the later march through the Carolinas, being in active service with his regiment until the close of the war. Thomas H. Seed was a miller by trade, and followed that business in Lawrenceville and Belmont until 1889, when he bought the Sumner Press, at Sumner, Illinois. In 1902 he sold out his interests there and removed to Mount Vernon, where he has since lived. His wife, Emma (Pope) Seed, was born July 29, 1850, in Burlington, Ohio. The mother of Thomas H. Seed was Sabilla Ryan, the daughter of an old Virginia family, early settlers in that state. Her grandmother was a Zane, of the Zane family, and her people removed to Illinois in 1838. The Seed family is of distinctly Irish origin, the founders of the family having passed their lives in Ireland for generation upon generation. It is known that in 1686, two brothers, John and William Seed, came over from England with William of Orange, and took active part in the famous Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. At the close of the war the brothers settled in county Down, where for one hundred and forty-eight years their descendants have dwelt. In 1837 the family removed to America, settling in Illinois. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Seed. They are Maurice J. and Rhoda. The latter named is an instructor of English in the Mount Vernon Township high school, and is a graduate of the Northwestern -University at Evanston, of the class of 1906. She is a young woman of fine attainments in educational and other ways, and is most popular in whatever circles she finds herself.
Maurice J. Seed passed his early life in Lawrenceville and Bellmont in attendance at the public schools. Finishing the course prescribed by the common schools he entered the Northwestern Academy at Evanston, graduating therefrom in June, 1899. He completed a course in the University, receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1902, having devoted special attention to English and political economy. He was awarded the N. W. Harris prize of $100.00 for his thesis on the trust question, and was awarded Phi Beta Kappa honors. On the completion of his university course, Mr. Seed purchased the Mount Vernon Daily and Weekly Register, the official Republican organ of Jefferson county, and he has since that time conducted the paper in a manner that has brought it up to a high standard of excellence, both as a dispenser of the news and a paper especially suited to the needs of the
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home. Mr. Seed has been secretary of the Republican central committee, and is especially prominent in political circles. He is affiliated with a number of fraternal organizations, among them being Mt. Vernon Lodge, No. 31, A. F. & A. M., H. W. Hubbard Chapter, No. 160, Royal Arch Masons, Patton Commandery, No. 69, Knights Templar, and Jefferson Lodge, No. 131, Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Mount Vernon.
On October 18, 1905, Mr. Seed married Elizabeth Fickes, of Stenbenville, Ohio, a graduate of Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan. Three children were born to them, one of whom died in infancy, those remaining being Ruth Elizabeth and Helen Georgia.