The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

SEELEY (SEELY), David Ross (1811-1901) and (first wife) Laura (c. 1822-1860) and (second wife) Ellen Amelia (1830-1907)

Laura Seeley began to keep the Sabbath in 1851, the first Adventist in Rochester, New York, to do so. David, a blacksmith, followed his wife in 1852, but not without first opposing her almost to the point of divorce. “I made up my mind that we should have to part” he wrote in a gripping testimony to the Review. The Seeleys both came out of the Millerite movement and were active laypersons in Rochester after becoming Sabbatarians. 1EGWLM 888.1

James and Ellen White knew the Seeley family well, having lived next door to them in Rochester for a time in the early 1850s. David Seeley witnessed Ellen White in vision in 1854, his testimony of this event appearing in J. N. Loughborough's book The Great Second Advent Movement. On a return visit to Rochester in 1859, Ellen White found Laura Seeley very ill. “Poor afflicted soul!” Ellen exclaimed in her diary. Laura died the following year of “paralysis,” age 38. After Laura's death David moved to Illinois and then Iowa. His second marriage was to Ellen Amelia Bannister Childs. 1EGWLM 888.2

See: Obituary: “David Ross Seeley,” Review, Nov. 12, 1901, p. 742; obituary: “Laura Seely,” Review, June 5, 1860, p. 23; obituary: “Ellen Amelia Seeley,” Review, Feb. 28, 1907, p. 23; Adelaide Keith Merrill, The Keith Book (Minneapolis: Lynd Press, 1934), p. 176; Sister Seely, “Letters,” Review, Nov. 25, 1851, p. 55; David Seely, “Communication From Bro. Seely,” Review, Nov. 25, 1852, p. 109; search term “Seely” in Words of the Pioneers; Ellen G. White, Lt 7, 1854 (July); Ms 7, 1859 (Aug. 23 entry); J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement, pp. 208, 209; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, “David Seely,” Illinois, Whiteside County, Mount Pleasant, p. 296; 1870 U.S. Federal Census, “David Seeley,” Iowa, Fayette County, Westfield, p. 27; 1900 U.S. Federal Census, “David Seeley,” Iowa, Fayette County, Fayette, p. 12A. 1EGWLM 888.3