At the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. Seaton offered his services in defense of the Union, and was commissioned a captain of Company B, Twenty-second regiment, Illinois infantry. His first engagement was the battle of Belmont under General Grant, and Captain Seaton was in command of the skirmish line that opened this engagement. One of the precious possessions of his family at this day is the personal letter he received from the famous commander, commending him for the efficient manner in which he performed the task allotted to his command. He served for one year and then resigned his commission and returned to Alton to take charge of his business. After the war Mr. Seaton remained in Alton in charge of his foundry until 1872, when he removed to Atchison with his entire force of fifty employees. He was induced to remove westward by the fact that six months previous to the time of his removal to Atchison, the city had voted $10,000 in bonds to any man who would establish a foundry. He accepted the offer and the result was one of the most beneficial industries ever located in Atchison. The Seaton foundry gave employment to over 200 men, and he built up an industry which today stands without a peer in its line in the West. The secret of Mr. Seaton’s success lay in the fact that every detail of his business received his direct supervision, and he insisted that only first class work be turned out by his factories. For over eighteen years this captain of industry carried his dinner pail with him to the foundry and worked side by side with his men. He continued doing this after he had attained to a position of wealth and affluence which enabled him to own a home at the seashore at Orient, L. I., and could have retired from active work at any time he chose. None but the finest finished products were allowed to leave his establishment, and the name of Seaton and the output of his plant are noted over the West for the excellence of the finished manufactured materials and for their absolute reliability. In addition to general architectural work, he filled orders for the Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific and Ft. Scott and Gulf railroads, such as casting locomotive wheels, smoke stacks, steam cylinders, etc., all known as locomotive finished material products. The business of his large establishment in Atchison was built up until it amounted to over $250,000 annually, and the plant covered an area of 700×400 feet. Mr. Seaton was in business continually from 1856 until the time of his demise, January 12, 1912.
The activities of this noted citizen of Atchison were not confined entirely to his business, but he took an active and influential part in civic and political affairs after his advent in Atchison. His career showed that he possessed statesmanship ability of a high order. For a period of eighteen years Mr. Seaton was a member of the Kansas State legislature, and so great was his influence in the house, and so long and distinguished was his service that he became known throughout the State as the “Father of the House.” His name is associated with many of the important measures enacted into law by the State legislature, among them being the binding twine factory law, which act is responsible for the establishment of a plant for the manufacture of binder twine at the State penitentiary. He probably did more for the success of the “Douglass House,” during the legislative trouble of 1893 than any other member of the Republican body. As a citizen and a legislator he enjoyed the respect and esteem of the people of Kansas without regard to political affiliations. He was opposed to the dominance of “trusts and monopoly,” and it was his firm conviction that the great corporations were devoid of feeling of a personal nature.
April 9, 1857, Mr. Seaton was married to Miss Charlotte E. Tuthill, of Alton, Ill., and this marriage was blessed with five children: Mrs. Lillie M. Hendrickson, of Atchison; John C. in California; Mary, wife of Dr. W. H. Condit, of Kansas City; Mrs. Nellie Taber (Seaton) Byram, deceased, and George L., married Amy Cox, of Weston, Mo., and resides on South Fourth street, Atchison; John C. Seaton married Gertrude Hickman, of Coffeyville, Kan. and resides in Kansas City and Los Angeles, Cal.; Mrs. Charlotte E. (Tuthill) Seaton was born in Alton, Ill., November 10, 1840, a daughter of Pardon Taber Tuthill, who was born and reared on Long Island, N. Y., and was a scion of one of the oldest American families. The great-great-grandfather of Mrs. Seaton, John Tuthill, known as Pilgrim John Tuthill, came from England with early settlers to Long Island. The home built by Pilgrim John on Long Island in the early part of the eighteenth century is still standing in a good state of preservation. The ancestral home of the Tuthills is located in the village of Orient, Long Island. On the maternal side an ancestor of Mrs. Seaton, named Capt. Andrew Englis, commanded a company in the Revolution and was a great patriot. Pardon Taber Tuthill was a pioneer in Alton, Ill. He was a contractor and builder and in his later years devoted his time and talents to horticulture. He was continually experimenting and developed several new varieties of fruit. He was blessed with a scientific mind and became famous as a horticulturist.
John Seaton was a member of John A. Martin Post, No. 93, Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion and the Knights of Pythias lodges. Through him the Enterprise theater was rebuilt and remodeled in Atchison, and he was always found in the forefront of public movements to advance the interests of his home city. Socially Mr. Seaton was a genial, approachable, unassuming gentleman, whose pride was manifest concerning his Civil war record and the fact that he had amassed wealth and attained a leading position in the civic life of his adopted State through his own efforts, and built up his fortunes from the ground. He was a man of undoubted integrity and was a noble character whose demise was sincerely mourned by the whole city of Atchison. He was a kind and indulgent husband and father. In his passing Kansas lost one of her best and most widely known statesmen and Atchison one of her most useful citizens. His was a life well spent in behalf of the city and State where his name will long be remembered and revered as one of the honored pioneers of a widely known city and great State which he helped to create.
AARON S. BEST.
It is meet that considerable space in this history of Atchison county be devoted to the stories of the lives of real pioneers of the county. The old pioneers were the salt of the earth, and a stronger or more vigorous race of men, never conquered a wilderness. In the class of the real, old pioneer settlers, comes Aaron S. Best, retired farmer, of Effingham, Kan. Captain Best has lived in Atchison county for nearly fifty-five years, and has seen the country transformed from a vast tract of pasture and grazing land to a region of fertile and productive farms, and well built towns and cities. During all these years he has taken an active and prominent part in county affairs, and in his younger days was a political leader in his own neighborhood.
Aaron S. Best was born June 27, 1839, in Clinton county, Pa., a son of John W. and Catharine (Schaefer) Best, of German descent, and native born and reared in Pennsylvania. John W. Best was born in 1809 and died in 1881. He was the son of Peter Best, a native of Pennsylvania, of German parentage. In the year 1860, John W. Best, accompanied by his wife and seven children, crossed the country to find a new home in Kansas. He had made a trip to Atchison county in the previous year, and, after carefully looking over the ground, made up his mind that the country had a great future, and he decided to move his family so as to make a permanent home in Kansas. The Best family arrived in Atchison in March of 1861, and at once moved to a farm in old Monrovia. In June of the same year, the wife and mother died, at the age of forty-five years. The following children were born to John W. Best and wife: Mary and Elvina, deceased, in Pennsylvania; Henry, living at Parr, Tex.; Louis, Luther and Reuben, deceased; Mrs. Henrietta Lamberson, of Argentry, Ark.; and Michael, deceased.
Aaron Best was twenty-one years of age when the family removed to Atchison county. Being a Free State advocate, it was only natural that he take some part in the struggle which finally made Kansas a free State. When General Price’s threatened invasion of Kansas seemed imminent, he assisted in raising a company of militia among his neighbors and was chosen captain. This company marched to Westport, and took part in the famous engagement which resulted in Price’s retreat to the southward. Captain Best was in command of Company F, Twelfth regiment, Kansas cavalry. Only two companies of the Twelfth regiment were under fire, and Company F was one of these, Capt. Asa Barnes’ company being the other actively engaged. Captain Best’s horse was shot from under him and badly crippled.
After coming to Kansas, he spent one year assisting his father on the home farm, and then moved to a farm of his own, south of Monrovia, which he developed from raw prairie land to a very productive farm, residing on until 1907, when he rented his land holdings and retired to a comfortable home in Effingham. The first land which Mr. Best owned was bought by his father for $750, and he farmed this on the share plan for six years, after which he paid his father $2,000 for 140 acres. His next purchase was eighty acres of land nearby, and he continued to add to his land possessions until he was the owner of 275 acres in all. In the spring of 1914 Mr. Best sold his farm land for $21,000. His farm was one of the best improved in Atchison county, and naturally brought a good, round price, because of the good condition of the buildings and of the fertility of the soil.
Mr. Best was married in February, 1860, to Malinda Bricker, and to this union have been born one son and three daughters, as follows: Mrs. Ella Rebecca Sharp, living at Helena, Mo., and mother of two children, Albert and Twila; Mrs. Mary C. Bonnell, living on a farm southeast of Effingham, and who has eight children, Nellie, Edith, Grace, Ruth, Catharine, Lea, Claude, Malinda; Mrs. Emma Wood, of Council Grove, Kan., and mother of four children, Clara, Beulah Morris, Ralph, Esther; John a merchant, of Monrovia, Kan., father of three children, Leota, Hazel, and Blanche. The mother of these children was born in Hanover township, Daulphin county, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1837, and was a daughter of Joseph and Rebecca (Lohs) Bricker, both of whom were of Pennsylvania German ancestry, and died in their Pennsylvania home.