Seward Facer
Seward Facer was born January 19, 1844, the eldest child of James and Eliza Facer. Seward had two younger sisters, Helen and Frances, who was also known as Fanny. James Facer died May 30, 1858, at the age of 52, leaving his family with about $700 in real estate and a $150 personal estate. Seward was able to continue attending the Varick District 9 school after his father's death, and might have followed Sidney Burroughs and the Barricks to the Normal School, if not for the war. Seward enrolled in the Normal School Company on August 30, 1862. He injured is back while still in the organizing camp in Albany, and also grew ill. He was in and out of the hospitals during his time of service, and was transferred to Company E, 18th Veteran Reserve Corps, on August 13, 1863. He was officially mustered out on June 26, 1865. During his service in the army tragedy again struck the Facers, as Seward's sister Helen died in 1864, at the age of 20.
After the war, Seward moved to the village of Seneca Falls. On January 11, 1871, he married Helena H. Underhill, of the nearby town of Phelps. Their first child, a daughter named Lillian, died August 10, 1872, at the age of only 10 months. Four months later, Helena gave birth to a second child, Charles Herbert Facer. Seward, however, did not have much opportunity to enjoy his new son. The illnesses that weakened him during the war continued to bother him in private life. He succumbed to sickness on September 29, 1873, and was buried in Seneca Falls, near his infant daughter.
The remnants of the Facer family banded together. Fanny Facer taught high school in Seneca Falls for many years, and later moved with her widowed mother to Cleveland, where she continued to teach. Helena and her son Charles remained in Seneca Falls. He graduated from the Mynderse Academy in 1893, and became town collector. He, too, led a short life, dying on August 11, 1900 at Chautauqua, New York, at the age of 27. His Aunt Fanny died in Cleveland on January 25, 1901, at the age of 49, while still teaching in Cleveland. Seward's mother, Elizabeth, died 2 months later in Cleveland, at the age of 85. Helena Facer never remarried, and died in Seneca Falls on May 28, 1917, at the age of 69. She was buried next to her husband and infant daughter.