BENJAMIN FRANK SEAVER 1858–1929

Benjamin Frank Seaver was an early member of the American Alpine Club (1903), and for twelve years served it as Treasurer and later as Vice President. He had been a member of the Alpine Club of Canada since the year 1907, acting several times as Chairman of its New York section. He also belonged to the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Fresh Air, Sierra, Green Mountain and Adirondack Clubs, also the Club Alpin Francais.

Mr. Seaver died in Brooklyn, on April 26, 1929. He was the son of Benjamin Francis Seaver and Lucy Jewett Seaver. His grandfather was Benjamin Seaver, who, in 1852, was Mayor of Boston and a founder of the Boston Public Library; his descent was from Robert Seaver, who came to Roxbury, Mass., and was a freeman there in 1637.

On his mother’s side, his forebears were John Jewett and Lucy Ripley Jewett, who were from the “old Manse” at Concord, Mass.

He was ever thoughtful of others. If the objectives were in the New Jersey Mountains, he would sometimes go prepared with bandages and even a serum for snake bites. Unlike Hazlitt, a pedestrian who preferred solitude, saying—“I cannot see the wit of walking and talking at the same time”, Mr. Seaver expressed the joy of the mountains and forests. Sensitive to the appeal of fine scenery, he felt that an appreciation of it was almost a duty.

In former years, he was a frequent visitor at the Ravine House, at Randolph, New Hampshire, where his strolls would lead him among the high mountains. But later his summer tours were in the Canadian Rockies; and even after illness had limited his climbing, he enjoyed the country about Banff. Perhaps few things gave him greater satisfaction, than the dedication of the “Seaver Hut” by his friends in Canada, as a tribute to this friendship.

By a will made in 1913, he gave bequests to the Appalachian Mountain Club, American Alpine Club, Alpine Club of Canada, Fresh Air Club of New York, and Sierra Club of San Francisco. His fine collection of mountaineering books was left to the Brooklyn Public Library.

Harrington Putnam.

[Dr. Freeman Allen, an active member of the Club since 1924, died in Boston on May 3, 1930, after an illness of several months.]