Cedar Hill Cemetery's Notable of the Month

Notable of the Month: Thomas H. Seymour (1807-1868) Born in Hartford, Thomas H. Seymour graduated from Middletown Military Academy. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1833. In 1836, he took the position of judge of probate and shortly thereafter, he became editor of The Jeffersonian, a democratic newspaper.

Seymour served in the U. S. House of Representatives and as Governor of Connecticut. He resigned as Governor in 1853 to accept the commission of Minister to Russia and he served in this position until 1858. The next several years were laden with unsuccessful political campaigns. He ran for governor unsuccessfully in 1860 and 1863, and in 1864 he sought the Democratic nomination for president but lost to Civil War General George B. McClellan.

Seymour died of typhoid fever in 1868. The Seymour Monument Association formed to raise funds to purchase a lot and to erect a suitable monument at Cedar Hill. Although buried in 1868, the monument featuring two bronze medallions, one a portrait of Seymour and the other portraying Masonic symbols, was unveiled in 1881 with an elaborate ceremony attended by over 1,000 spectators