Mary "Mollie" (Murdock)
Seelye
(1869- ? )
Mary "Mollie" (Murdock) Seelye was born in 1869 in Wheeling, Ohio County, WV, the daughter of Godfrey Guesman and Amanda (Stephens) Murdock.
Mollie was unmarried circa 1899, at age 30, at the time of death of her father. When the federal census was taken the following year, in 1900, she was employed as a stenographer in Wheeling. She made her home with her married cousin, Jessie Wells, who was a saleswoman in a millinery shop. Also living in the household that year on Broadway in Wheeling were Mollie's other cousins Dame Olliver, Lyda M. Olliver and Howard G. Olliver.
In about 1901, Mollie married Bertram (or "Burt") P. Seelye (1864- ? ), when she was age 31, and he 36. He was a native of New York, and how they would have met is an enduring mystery. They moved almost immediately to White Plains, Westchester County, a tony suburb of New York City.
There, they had three children, Bertram M. Seelye, Frances Seelye and Aline I. Seelye.
Bert was a longtime educator and school administrator. The censuses of 1910 and 1920 list the family living on Lenox Avenue in White Plains, with Bert employed as the principal of a public school. In 1930, the federal census shows the family in White Plains, with Bert working as a principal of a school in New York City. Son Bertram, age 28, was a teacher in New York City, while 23-year-old daughter Aline was a teacher in White Plains.
They were last known to be in White Plains circa 1946, when Bert signed the death certificate of his sister in law Sue (Murdock) Fawcett, but their fates are unknown.
Copyright © 2001-2003, 2008 Mark A. Miner