Frances Adeline Seward
Frances Adeline Miller Seward (September 25, 1805 – June 21, 1865) was the First Lady of New York and the wife of William Henry Seward, a senator in the New York legislature, Governor of New York, a senator from New York and United States Secretary of State under President Abraham Lincoln. Early life Frances Adeline Miller was born on September 25, 1805, in Cayuga County, New York. She was the daughter of Judge Elijah Miller (1772–1851) and Hannah Foote Miller (1778–1811), who was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She studied at the Troy Female Seminary (now known as Emma Willard School). Life Frances was deeply committed to the abolitionist movement. In the 1850s, the Seward family opened their Auburn home as a safehouse to fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. Seward's frequent travel and political work suggest that it was Frances who played the more active role in Auburn abolitionist activities. In the excitement following the rescue and safe transport of fugitive slave William "Jerry" Henry in Syracuse on October 1, 1851, Frances wrote to her husband, "two fugitives have gone to Canada—one of them our acquaintance John." Another time she wrote, "A man by the name of William Johnson will