Name Olive Seward | Parents William H. Seward | |
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Died November 27, 1908, Washington, D.C., United States Siblings Frederick W. Seward, Frances Adeline Seward, William H. Seward, Jr., Augustus Henry Seward, Cornelia Seward Grandparents Samuel Sweezy Seward, Mary Jennings Seward Similar People William H Seward, Frances Adeline Seward, Frederick W Seward | ||
Olive Risley Seward (July 15, 1844 – November 27, 1908) was a writer and the adopted daughter of William Henry Seward, United States Secretary of State under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
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Early life
Olive F. Risley, was born in Fredonia, New York. She was the daughter of the former Harriet C. Crosby and Hanson A. Risley, a prominent civil servant who later worked for the Secretary of the Treasury and resided in Washington, D.C.. She attended local schools and grew up in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the capital.
Personal life
Beginning about 1868, when she was in her early 20s, Olive Risley became a close companion of the widower statesman William Henry Seward in the last years of his life. Their relationship followed the deaths of Seward's wife Frances Adeline Miller Seward and daughter Frances Adeline "Fanny" Seward (with whom Risley had been friends), and was shortly after the death of Olive's own mother (in 1866). In company with her sister Harriet Risley, and her father Hanson, Olive traveled extensively with Seward through Asia, the Middle East and Europe in 1870-1871. In order to curtail gossip and family worries that they might marry, Seward formally adopted Olive as his daughter in 1870.
Published works
When they returned to New York, Seward and Olive began work on a travel book about their experiences, drawing largely on Olive's journal from the trip. Unfortunately, Seward died before the book was finished. Published by D. Appleton & Co. in 1873, William H. Seward's Travels Around the World became a best seller. According to James Cephas Derby, the Seward estate made $50,000 from the sales.
Inheritance and later life
After Seward's death, Olive, who inherited a quarter share of Seward's $200,000 estate, moved back to Fredonia to be with her birth father. By 1874, she had moved to Washington D.C., where she, with her lifelong companion Sara Carr Upton, co-founded the Literary Society of Washington. She was also a member of the Washington Club and the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1889, she wrote a book of stories for children based on her travels with Seward called Around the World Stories that was published by D. Lothrop Company. She died in 1908 at her home on Nineteenth Street, NW.
Memorial
In 1971, sculptor John Cavanaugh chose to create a statue honoring her. A picture of her was not found at the time, so Cavanaugh sculpted his idea of an idealized Victorian lady instead. The statue stands in front of a private residence on North Carolina Avenue and Sixth Street, SE in Washington, D.C.. Risley's head is turned to the left as if gazing toward the nearby Seward Square, named for her adoptive father.