Notes |
- Seward French, West Bloomfield, was born at East Bloomfield February
28, 1856. He was preparing for Hamilton College when his father died,
and he was called home to attend duties there. He became a school
teacher and later a deputy sheriff, in which office he was successful
in apprehending thirty-one men out of thirty-three warrants had in one
year. In 1879 he began the study of law in the office of the noted
criminal lawyer, Hon. George Raines of Rochester, with such close
application that on an examination three and a half years later for
admission to the bar, he was one of the foremost in his class of
thirty. He practiced in Rochester until 1889, then removed to
Miller's Corners where he has one of the finest law offices in the
county, and which has a museum of criminal relics and implements
secured by his perseverance, as evidence in cases. He has also two
other offices at East Bloomfield and Victor, and branch offices in
Chicago and Sioux Falls for divorces for parties wishing these
facilities. Mr. French devotes himself most especially to criminal
law, and within five years was successful council in ninety-two
criminal and that line of cases, one of the most important being the
celebrated John Kelly homicide case, which was three years in the
courts. He tries a case with boldness and skill, and is a rapid
thinker. His father, Reuben E., was born in East Bloomfield, and
married Maria H. McMichael, born in Canandaigua, of Scotch-Irish
descent. Reuben was three times supervisor and owned a fine farm near
Miller's Corners, now owned by his son Seward, was born in
Massachusetts and came to Victor among the early settlers. Subject is
a 32d degree Mason, is notary public for Ontario, Livingston and
Monroe counties. He married in 1876 Jennie L. Jefferson, daughter of
John Jefferson of Miller's Corners, and they have three children
living: Reuben, Lyra and Florine. One daughter, Floice, is deceased.
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