W. F. Seaver was born in Rock Island, Illinois, February 22, 1849, and was the son of John Seaver and Eliza Criswell, who emigrated to Illinois in 1840, the former being a native of Virginia. At the age of sixteen, William left his home and traveled indiscriminately through the States, adopting various means of making a living throughout sixteen states which he visited in turn. Having sowed his first crop of wild oats, the young man, determining to study for a profession, entered the Alexandria College, Alexandria, Missouri, and then read law under Hon. E. Kimble, of Nevada, Missouri. He was admitted to the bar September 1877, at Memphis, Missouri, under Judge John C. Anderson, district judge, fourth judicial district. Mr. Seaver holds licenses in Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Oregon, which latter State he left in December 1890, having practiced eighteen months in Salem. On moving to Muskogee, Indian Territory, he formed partnership with Joshua Ross, an Indian lawyer, and with whom he is at present connected in business. Mr. Seaver has had a very adventurous life and broad experience for a man of his years. In 1878, he became involved in the Leadville excitement, and spent three years of his life, as well as $2,350, in fruitless prospecting. Mr. Seaver comes of Indian lineage on both sides. His grandfather was born of a Creek woman by an Irish father, while his great-grandmother was part Creek and Cherokee, by name Murphy, and who married William Ross, of the Scottish Ross family, one branch of which married into the Cherokees. Mr. Seaver married a Miss Neil, of Barton County, Missouri, in 1884, and is without family. He is a pleasant, dignified and gentlemanly man, with great natural adaptability, but his talents are chiefly centered in the law which is the profession to which he is best adapted.
