Seth Ward

Seth Ward

The Early Years

Seth Seaton Ward, only son of Seth and Georgia Seaton Ward, was born in Princeton, Indiana, on September 1^st, 1899.   He must have moved to Indianapolis soon after third grade. 

Seth attended Purdue University from 1917 – 1918, where he was in ROTC and pledged Sigma Chi fraternity.  Their March 1918 newsletter creates this word picture of Seth:

“Seth, although built on the lines of the Washington  Monument, seems to acclimate himself very readily.  Seth has landed a place on the Glee Club and takes an interest in student activities.”

(He also listed himself as a dash man and shot putter on the Purdue Track team.)

The March, 1918 Purdue Sigma Chi newsletter revealed another future Lake Wawasee connection: “Brother Alldean Strieby, ‘18, was recently married to Miss Irene Macy.”  Interestingly, Alldean’s father purchased the slip on Conklin Bay when the Portland Cement Co. abandoned operations.  He set it up for his son to run a marina.   The Wawasee Slip was technically the first marina on the lake, being established in 1921.    Unfortunately, Alldean died 6 years later at age 31, and Irene’s brother, Wales Macy, ran it until his death in 1980.  Irene Macy Strieby was a Purdue University librarian and eventually became the chief librarian and archivist for the Eli Lilly Company in Indianapolis.

His credits as a Purdue student enabled Seth to enter West Point Military Academy in August, 1919, without examination.  Gen. Douglas MacArthur was the Superintendent of West Point at the time.  Seth received a medical discharge March, 1920, because of injuries received in the line of duty apparently as a result of a hazing conducted by upperclassmen who seemed to think it would improve the plebes’ discipline and character.  He said he then found the pursuance of law more to his liking.

The Roaring 20’s and early 30’s

Law Enforcement

During Prohibition (1920-33), the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol was illegal in the United States.  Seth was a Revenue Enforcement Officer for the U.S. Treasury from 1922 to 1925 (a T–Man; “think Elliott Ness & the Untouchables”).   His highest profile arrest came with the Department of Justice in June, 1925, when he was part of a group who traveled to New York City posing as tourists and arrested officers of a wholesale mail order bootlegging business that had been shipping an estimated 500 cases of whiskey a month to Indiana.

In the 1920s, D.C. Stephenson was the extremely politically powerful Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan of Indiana and 22 other states, operating out of Indianapolis.   In 1923, at age 23, Seth is pictured outside the Marion County jail housing Stephenson after his arrest for the brutal assault of Madge Oberholtzer.  Mr. Ward, a U.S. Treasury officer, aided in the apprehension of Stephenson by skillfully wire-tapping his telephone.  On November 14, 1925, Stephenson was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, serving 31 years in the Indiana State Penitentiary, Michigan City.  By 1928, the Indiana Klan, once the strongest in the Invisible Empire, had collapsed, with membership totaling only 4,000, down from an estimated high of half a million.

    William H. Remy

D.C. Stephenson

Politics

In the 1920s, cars were overtaking buggies and bicycles.   From 1925-1927, Seth worked for State Auto Insurance (  acquired in 2022 by Liberty Mutual Insurance) as an Insurance Investigations Special Investigator. He ran for several political offices, but didn’t seem to get past the primary.  Like the card says, he ran to become the 1924 Republican nominee for Marion County sheriff.  Seth served as Republican chairman of the Third Ward in 1931 and 1932.  In 1932, he was a primary candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, and in the 1934 Republican Primary, he ran for Judge of the Marion County Superior Court.

Seth studied law as time allowed for 6 years before receiving his Attorney’s Certificate to practice law in the Circuit Court of Marion County, IN., dated June 16, 1927.   On a federal job application, Seth wrote: “I received the highest grade in the class that took the State bar examination in 1926, at Indianapolis.”  Consulting a local law office, I found he was listed in Indianapolis appellate court cases from 1930 – 1961. Seth was a Presbyterian, a member of the Columbia Club since c. 1925, and the American Legion

Lake Life

Betsy painted this mural on one of the inside walls of the home.

These pictures in Seth’s parents’ photo album indicate the family may have visited Lake Wawasee as early as 1916.  This is a mystery we would love to solve!

Around 1957, the old Syracuse grade school (now uptown lower parking lot) was being torn down, and Seth purchased the columns which he incorporated into the entrance of the grand white brick building on the property.  To my knowledge, the whereabouts of the columns is unknown.    Seth, a 32nd Degree Mason, placed a large Masonic emblem on the front step landing.  Using a Bible Laura Sargent gave Seth, Rev. Koble of Syracuse performed a cornerstone laying ceremony.  Viewed from the lake, most people mistakenly thought the grand white brick building was the Ward residence.  Actually, the inside of the building was described to me as a large room much like a ballroom with a chandelier on the ceiling.  The “library” contained a full-size picture of Abe Lincoln.  Upon entering, Seth would greet Abe with, “Hello Abe, how’s business today?”  Seth’s office in the smaller building was connected by a hallway lined with his law books.  Interestingly, there is a Seth Ward, TX.  Once Betty wrote to them requesting a postmark, but it was too small to have its own.  The Wawasee Post office had their own postmark and these are the boxes from the old Sargent’s Hotel!   All buildings on the property were demolished in the 1990s

 Another Wawasee shoreline landmark on the property was the long white building with the “Independence Hall-style” belfry which housed an old locomotive bell Seth purchased in Brown County.  With a terrace on top, it was primarily a bathhouse/guest house.  The cement work on the property was done by Charles Rock and his son of the Syracuse area.

His wife Betsy must have been multi-talented – artistic, musical and poetically.  At Christmas she created an original drawing of a Santa Claus’ head with a Christmas poem of her composing and evidently composed and lent musical assistance to the Indianapolis Monument Circle Christmas celebrations.  This is the Christmas poem on her grave in the Syracuse Cemetery.

Typical of Seth Ward when he was in Syracuse:

• Winters saw him usually wearing a big, heavy coat
• Plenty of stamps to ensure prompt delivery of his Christmas mail
• Showed my Dad the commission check from the sale of the Sargent property pinned inside his coat
• Paying with “new money” – crisp bills or paying with $2.00 bills – “so he could see where his money went!”
• The Spink hotel had an English manager, Arthur Buckley, who wore a cut away coat and a bow tie.  Seth believed the Queen of England knighted “Sir” Arthur – that very well be true!

Scores of neighborhood children and friends annually attended HIS birthday parties on Sept. 1st.  Seth provided a number of cakes, gallons of ice cream and endless candy bars and cookies.   In 1969, several hundred kids helped him celebrate his 70th birthday.

Seth and Betsy drove Lincolns. One of these cars became legendary – he repainted it himself, using numerous cans of aluminum spray paint, put a slow-moving vehicle orange triangle on the trunk lid and had plastic pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns on each rear tail light at Halloween. 

From 1967 – 1975, the priests operated Wawasee Preparatory School – a private, boys boarding high school program and 2 years of college.  Seth Ward lived nearby and considered the priests his friends.  He allowed Wawasee Prep the use of a portion of his property across the road as a soccer field for a short period of time.

His beloved Betsy died in Jan., 1967 and is buried in the Syracuse Cemetery.  Seth had wanted to bury Betsy in her family’s plot at Crown Hill in Indianapolis, but after some time found that wouldn’t work out.  Seth lived another seven and a half years at his Wawasee home, dying in July, 1974.  Notice what is engraved on his marker in the Syracuse Cemetery: “To the glory of the grand architect of the universe. Duty. Honor. Country. Seth Seaton Ward. West Pointer.”  Symbols on the monument are: a Sigma Chi shield and Masonic symbol.

After Seth Ward’s Death

Sometime after the Ward’s death, a realtor purchased the property, tore down the structures, and divided it into two lots (#11A & 11B), building a spec house which the buyer finished to his liking and a family built a house on the second lot.  A devastating fire in late March of 1998 destroyed both homes and an adjacent home.  M-J 6, 2000 reported: “This devastating fire prompted hydrants in the waters of Lake Wawasee.  15 hydrants will be completed by August.”

2022

Conclusion:

It’s been my pleasure to sort out the life of Legendary Seth Seaton Ward – Grand Old Man of Lake Wawasee during the 1950s through the ‘70s using information contributed by Seth himself in 1932 and 1942 on questionnaires.  His life was a blend of humor, sorrow and controversy.  When it came right down to it, Seth was a sensible man.  He believed in God, was soft-hearted, tender, protected Betsy, loved to have visitors, didn’t hold anything back; he was ornery, BUT he could be a perfect gentleman when it was appropriate.  Everyone had a favorite Seth Ward story.  It was an education to talk to him or for that matter listen to him from across the store.  “No matter how dull your day might start out to be, meeting Seth and talking for a few minutes could make you forget your troubles.”

Written by Ann Vanderford Garceau for the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum based on historical research.  It is not to be used without permission from the museum.