THE RIGHT REV. GEORGE FRANKLIN SEYMOUR, S.T.D., LL.D., whose portrait appears on the opposite page, was born in the city of New York on the 5th of January, 1829. He was the youngest child of Isaac Newton and Elvira (Belknap) Seymour. The two eldest children, sons, died in infancy in Newburg, Orange County, N.Y., where the family then resided, and where the third child, a daughter Mary, was born in 1820. In 1825 Isaac Newton Seymour removed to New York City on receiving an appointment in the office of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., and there his two remaining children, Elvira and the future bishop were born, the former in 1826 and the latter as above stated, in 1829.

The Bishop's father was of English ancestry and the family emigrated from Hertfordshire about 1640, to New Hartford, Conn. The descendants of the original settlers were scattered, some going to Vermont, and the others to the State of New York. In New York the Seymours found homes in Saratoga County, and further west in Oneida and Onondaga Counties. Isaac Newton Seymour was born in the village of Stillwater, Saratoga County, May 12, 1794. He came to newburg in 1810 to make his way in the world, and rose from the humble position of a clerk in a village store to be Deputy Sheriff of the county (Orange) before he was twenty-five years of age. In 1825, on the organization of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co., Mr. Seymour was tendered a position in the New York office by the President, John Wurtz. This he accepted, and after a few years became the Treasurer, which place he retained until April 1, 1869, making a service of nearly forty-five years in connection with the company. On his retirement by voluntary resignation the managers passed a series of very complimentary resolutions, and voted their late treasurer a life annuity of $2,000 and a desk in their office for his personal use. Mr. Seymour died January 17, 1873.

The Bishop's mother united Irish and English blood in her veins; on her father's side she was English, on her mother's Irish. She was married to Mr. Seymour in the village of Newburg, April 14, 1818. She was a woman of much more than ordinary ability, and to her George has often been heard to say that he owed more than words could express. She was his companion when his infirmity withdrew him in large measure from the society of his equals in years, and he shared with her his hopes and fears and experiences in school and college life. She lived to see him graduates at the head of his class in Columbia College, New York, and hear him deliver the Greek Salutatory Poem, the highest honor in those days (1850) of the institution. She lived to see him a priest in the church of God, and Warden of St. Stephen's College, Annandale, Dutchess County, N.Y., which he himself had founded within six years after taking orders. Her death occurred November 25, 1858.

The elder of the bishop's sisters, Mary, who still survives, married her second cousin, John F. Seymour, and has three daughters; the younger named for her mother, Elvira, married Charles H. Mount. She died in 1856 leaving two daughters. When the subject of this memoir was less than a month old he fell a victim to an attack of malignant ophthalmia, which was at the time epidemic. After a protracted confinement of more than sixteen weeks, to which he was condemned by the physicians in charge, the infant emerged from the darkened chamber with the sight of one eye, the right, so seriously impaired that it ceased to be of any practical use ever afterward, and the other had sustained permanent injury through the corroding effects of the violent inflammation. Under the hard conditions thus imposed by very imperfect vision the boy and man has been obliged to pursue his studies and do his life work. He early showed a strong love for books and learned to ready by the help fo his mother in the daily use of the family Bible, passing rapidly from the recognition of the large initial letters to a mastery of the ordinary text. When once he could read, he seized upon every book that came within his reach, without regard to the character of its contents, and perused it eagerly. This will account for his having read through, before he was eleven years of age, Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding".

George passed from a madam's school, taught by a Miss Durand, when eight years old, to the Village Academy presided over by S. R. Martin. The Village Academy was located a few blocks above Canal Street, and its name bears evidence to the rapid growth of New York City. From Mr. Martin's school the boy advanced to the grammar school of Columbia College under the charge of Prof. Charles Anthon and Dr. Henry Drisler. Here young Seymour began his classical studies, and completed his academic course in the college with its highest honors in 1850, receiving the General Testimonial, which placed him at the head of his class, and delivering the Greek Salutatory, on this occasion an iambic trimeter poem.

Mr. Seymour was strongly drawn to the sacred ministry through influences which fell upon him during his college course, and especially from a classmate older than himself, with whom he was intimate, James Starr Clark, now the Rev. Dr. Clark, the highly respected head of the excellent school for boys at Tivoli-on-the-Hudson. He hesitated, however, on account of his very defective vision, and waited a full year before he ventured so far as to enter the General Theological Seminary in the autumn of 1851. Even then, although enrolled as a student of the seminary, he did not become a candidate for holy orders until he reached his senior year, so doubtful was he of his ability to perform in a satisfactory manner, the public duties of the priesthood. He was graduated from the seminary in the summer of 1854 in a very large class, many of whose members have become eminent in the church. Among them are Bishops Brown and Knight, and Drs. DeKoven, Hodges, Parker, Richey and Smedes.

In consequence of the death of Bishop Wainwright, young Seymour was not ordained until the third Sunday in Advent following, December 17, 1854, in the Church of the Annunciation, West fourteenth Street, New York, by the Right Rev. Dr. Horatio Potter. This day was the anniversary of the consecration of Archbishop Parker, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1559. The sermon on the occasion was preached by the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., Rector of the Church and a grandson of the first Bishop of the American Church.

On the 7th of January following, the newly ordained Deacon entered upon his first charge, by appointment of the Bishop at Annandale on the Hudson, Dutchess County, N.Y. He literally placed himself in the bishop's hands and said that he was ready to go withersoever his father in God chose to send him. It was his duty to do so, but it is worth while to mention that obedience to his Bishop at the outset cost him the privilege of remaining at home and the loss of more than half the income offered him in New York had he remained.

The ordination of Mr. Seymour to the priesthood occurred in September, 1855, in Zion Church, Greenburg (Dobb's Ferry), Westchester County, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. William A. McVickar. The sermon was preached by the father of the Rector, the Rev. John McVickar, for many years professor in Columbia College, New York, and among the congregation present on the occasion was Washington Irving. The Bishop of New York, Dr. Horatio Potter, officiated again as the ordaining prelate, as he was destined to do once more, when he consecrated his presbyter a bishop in 1878. At the same time that the Rev. Mr. Seymour was made a priest, one who had for a time been his classmate in the seminary, but had gone abroad without graduating, was ordained a Deacon, the Rev. Clinton Locke, now the Rev. Dr. Locke, of Chicago.

Within six years from his assuming charge of his mission at Annandale, the Rev. Mr. Seymour established St. Stephen's College and became its first Warden. He also gathered a congregation of over one hundred communicants, and house them in the beautiful stone Church of the Holy Innocents, which was built under his administration. Indeed it was twice built, since when nearly ready for occupation, it was burned on the night of December 27, 1858. The missionary was not disheartened, although there was no insurance. He gathered all his worldly means together, not much, but his all, and set about rebuilding when the spring opened. The presence of the workmen and the avowal of his purpose by the young clergyman, moved the financial founder of the college, John Bard, to come forward and generously assume the responsibility of completing the church. It was consecrated by Bishop Potter, on the Feast of the Purification February 2, 1860. While the church was being built, visitors so frequently made the criticism that the edifice was altogether too costly and beautiful for the humble people who dwelt around, that the missionary, with a view to answer the cavil and cure for all time to come the misconception on which it rested, caused to be emblazoned in illuminated letters on the western wall of the church the text, "The palace is not for man, but for the Lord god." (I. Chron., XXIX, I). There the words remain to tell all who enter the sacred portals who dwells there to welcome them, even the King of Kings. Such were the convictions of the missionary who built the church and the sentence in his memorial. Through it he speaks to those who visit Annandale.

In 1861 the Rev. Mr. Seymour resigned his positions as Warden of St. Stephen's College and Missionary, and became the Rector of St. Mary's Church, Manhattanville, a part of New York City. Here he remained one year, when, at the instance of his bishop, he took charge as Rector of Christ church, Hudson, Columbia County. Again his incumbency lasted but a year, when he left, on the nomination of his bishop, to lead an almost forlorn hope in recovering St. John's Church, Brooklyn, from the demoralization into which it had fallen by the quarreling of factions. Obedient to his bishop, the Rev. Mr. Seymour surrendered his prosperous work in Hudson to make the venture of healing the dissensions and uniting the factions of the unhappy parish of St. John's in Brooklyn. Here he served for more than three years, and during this time he was elected Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the General Theological Seminary whose halls he had left as a student eleven years before. He entered upon his duties as professor in the month of October, 1865, but was not released from his rectorship of St. John's until Epiphany, 1867, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Alexander Burgess, now Bishop of Quincy. The rectorship of Mr. Seymour in St. John's was a success. He gathered a congregation whose communicants numbered over five hundred, and he paid off the entire floating debt.

In the General Theological Seminary the Rev. Mr. Seymour remained as professor for fourteen years, from 1865 to 1879. During this interval he received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from Racine (Wis.) College, over which his beloved classmate and friend, Dr. James DeKoven, presided as Warden in 1867, and the degree of Doctor of Laws from his Alma Mater, Columbia College (N.Y.), in 1878. In 1867, after he left St. John's Church, Brooklyn, he became Chaplain of the House of Mercy, New York, an asylum for the reclamation of fallen women, under the charge of the Sisters of St. Mary, and on the death of the Rev. Dr. John McVickar, he was chosen by the trustees to succeed him as Superintendent of the Society for Promoting Religion and Learning, in the State of New York. The duties of this office made him responsible for the distribution of over $25,000 annually among needy theological students.

In 1875 the Rev. Mr. Seymour was elected by a very large majority the second permanent Dean of the General Theological Seminary, in succession to the Rev. Dr. Forbes. Dr. Seymour's career at the seminary was eminently practical. Outside of his specific duties as professor and dean, he began under great difficulties and with very limited means, those improvements in the buildings and grounds of the institution which have been so munificently and generously continued by the present dean, the Rev. Dr. Hoffman. In 1868 the Rev. Dr. Seymour came within a few votes on the part of the laity of being chosen Bishop of Missouri. He received almost the unanimous vote of the clergy.

In 1874 the Rev. Dr. Seymour was elected Bishop of the undivided diocese of Illinois in succession to Bishop Whitehouse. The confirmation of the election was refused by a technical majority of the House of Deputies voting by dioceses and orders, although a numerical majority was favorable. The opposition to Dr. Seymour was not personal but theological, and was continued towards his friend, the Rev. Dr. James DeKoven, who a few months later was refused approval as Bishop elect of Illinois by the standing committees. A few years have passed and the position of these two men has been abundantly vindicated. The principles for which they contended and suffered are accepted as the blessed heritage which was bequeathed to us by the primitive church. Dr. DeKoven lived to see his fellow victim of partisan excitement Bishop of Springfield, and Dr. Seymour has lived to see a member of a religious order, under monastic vows, Bishop of Fond du Lac. Thank God for martyrdom, thank God for confessorship. They are fruitful in good results. We may not aspire to the one, but we may justly lay claim to the other. Dr. DeKoven was in a very high sense a confessor. His brethren, without knowing what they were doing, accorded him this privilege, and because the spirit of a martyr was in him, he with the deepest humility won the undying renown of confessorship.

Dr. Seymour was elected by unanimous vote of both clergy and laity, bishop of the newly erected diocese of Springfield in December, 1877. His election was approved and the following April he, acting under the advice of friends, declined. In the annual convention which assembled the next month, he was again unanimously chosen bishop, and feeling that such persistency was a constraining call, he accepted and was duly consecrated as the first Bishop of Springfield, on the Feast of St. Barnabas, June 11, 1878, in Trinity Church, New York City. By a happy conjunction the Feast of St. Barnabas, "the son of consolation," in 1878 fell upon Tuesday in Whitsun-Week, and thus the presence of the Holy Spirit was remarkably emphasized when Dr. Seymour received the office of a bishop in the Church of God.

Three bishops, by the law of the universal church, are necessary for a canonical consecration. Dr. Seymour had ten. His diocesan, Dr. Horatio Potter, who ordained him Deacon in 1854 and the priest in 1855, acted by commission from the Presiding Bishop as consecrator. He was assisted by Dr. Harper, Lord Bishop of Christ Church, New Zealand, and Metropolitan; Dr. Southgate, retired Bishop, formerly Missionary Bishop in Turkey; Dr. Odenheimer, Bishop of Northern New Jersey; Dr. Quintard, Bishop of Tennessee; Dr. Clarkson, Bishop of Nebraska; Dr. McLaren, Bishop of Illinois; Dr. Lay, Bishop of Easton; Dr. Neely, Bishop of Maine; and Dr. Scarborough, Bishop of New Jersey. Bishop Lay, at Dr. Seymour's request, preached the sermon. The presence of the Metropolitan of New Zealand added English orders to the strands which were woven together in the consecration. He came from New Zealand to San Francisco, and thence to New York via Chicago to embark for England to attend the Lambeth Conference which assembled a month later, and was in the City of New York but about twenty hours. Dr. Harper came, as it were, from the ends of the earth, to go far hence across the ocean, and was in the city just long enough to take part in the consecration, and then was gone, never to return.

Doctor, now Bishop Seymour, came to reside in his diocese in September, 1879. He was detained by the offices which he held at the time of his consecration. These he could not vacate until successors were appointed and in the case of the deanship and professorship in the seminary, several months must elapse before an election could be held. In the course of the year satisfactory arrangements were made, and the new bishop, released from his duties and responsibilities in the East, went to his future home to assume the charge of his diocese. The Bishop was married In Trinity Church, New York City, on July 23, 1889, to Harriet Atwood Aymar, the ceremony being performed by Dr. H. C. Potter, Bishop of New York, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Dix.

A word may be added in reference to the diocese, its present condition and its future prospects. The Diocese of Springfield receives its name from its see city, and embraces three-fifths of the territory of the State of Illinois, and about half its population. It reaches from Bloomington to Cairo, and from the Indiana line to the Illinois River, and lower down, to the Mississippi. The Church is relatively very weak within its borders, owing to the fact that she was not here in 1800 to meet the immigrants as they began to pour in and take up the fertile prairies for their future homes. The Church in the East was in no condition to be missionary in its character until the century was half gone. She had more than enough to do to hold her own against religious prejudice and ignorance, which confounded her with Rome; political prejudice, which alleged that her sympathies were monarchical, because she was the State Church of England; and social prejudice, since accident in Colonial times had given her an undue proportion of the wealth of the country. Hence for these causes the Church was not in Illinois to plant and build, to take up land and provide endowments for churches, schools and asylums, as the other religious bodies were. She came last upon the ground, and as late as 1837 there were only five presbyters within the entire State of Illinois.

When in 1877 the original diocese, which was identical in territory with the State, was divided into three, Springfield was assigned as her portion almost the whole of the distinctly missionary region where the Church had no visible existence. There was no endowment, there were no institutions of any kind; there was an immense work to do and little or no means with which to do it. Twelve years have passed since Bishop Seymour's consecration, and the church has grown under his administration in the interval to three times her proportions in every element of material strength beyond what she was when she was placed as a new diocese under his charge.