Elwyn Seelye

Elwyn Seelye (October 27, 1848 - October 14, 1920) was the founder of the New York State Historical Association and the first custodian of the Lake George battlefield site.

Elwyn Seelye was born October 27, 1848 in Queensbury, Warren County, New York. His family was from New England and was prominent in the Indian wars of the New England Colonies. His great-grandfather, Nehemiah Seelye, was one of the patentees of Queensbury, and an officer in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. Reuben Seelye, grandfather of Elwyn, was a lumberman, who cleared many farms, among which are some of the best known in Queensbury. Reuben Seelye, 2nd, holder of many local offices, was the father of Elwyn Seelye; Rizpah Matilda, daughter of Calvin Haskins, a physician who practiced in Queensbury, was his mother. Her maternal grandfather, Fields. was an officer at the Battle of Lexington.

In 1864, before Seelye had reached his 16 birthday, he attempted to enlist as a Union soldier. After repeated rejection by officers who knew his father and his age, he went to Fort Ann and secured acceptance. He ran away from home to Albany and entered the 14th New York Heavy Artillery. His regiment reached the front just after the fall of Petersburg. While on duty in North Carolina, he was thrown from the top of a freight car and received an injury of the spine from which he never fully recovered.

He returned from the war to his father’s Queensbury farm on the Bay Road, which he managed until some three years after his marriage. At a later period, he took building contracts at Lake George and dealt in real estate.

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