CHANNING SEABURY

Capitol overseer overshadowed by architect

"The death of Channing Seabury inflicts upon St. Paul the loss of
one of the city's progressive, successful business men and
public-spirited citizens."  


So wrote the St. Paul Pioneer Press in a 1910 editorial
eulogizing on the Oct. 28 death of one of the driving forces in
the construction of Minnesota's State Capitol.

For all the things Channing Seabury did to ensure that the $5
million Capitol building would be constructed correctly and
efficiently, his role in the monumental project has been
overshadowed by that of the guy he hired.

Seabury was chair of the State Capitol Board of Commissioners,
the panel established in 1893 to guide the development of the new
Capitol. The board hired architect Cass Gilbert to design the
building and oversee its construction.

"The influence that Mr. Seabury had on my father's career will
never be told," Gilbert's son wrote to Seabury's widow in 1934,
according to the Seabury family papers stored at the Minnesota
Historical Society.

Although Seabury's part in keeping the project on financial track
has been credited in histories of the Capitol, his role otherwise
appears lost in the annals of Minnesota. While reams have been
published about Gilbert and his artistic vision, little has been
written about Seabury.

Seabury was born in 1842 in Massachusetts. After working as an
errand boy in New York, at age 18 he moved to St. Paul to escape,
according to his sister Caroline, the "family disease" of
tuberculosis. During the Civil War, he worked for J.C. and H.C.
Burbank & Co., a wholesale clothing business that later was
acquired by Amherst H. Wilder, the St. Paul entrepreneur for whom
the well-known foundation is named. Seabury eventually became a
partner in the company.

Seabury would become a well-to-do and influential St. Paul
businessman, but his early years -- particularly during and just
after the Civil War -- were difficult. In one letter to his uncle
back east, he wrote of his yearning for a house of his own.

From 1867 to 1872, Seabury served as treasurer of the
Northwestern Union Packet Co. in St. Paul, and then spent 10
years with C. Gotzian and Co., a wholesale boot and shoe
manufacturer.

Seabury entered the wholesale grocery business in 1882, becoming
a partner in Maxfield, Seabury & Co. In 1892, the company became
known as Seabury & Son.

Seabury was married twice. In 1870, he married Frances W. Cruft
in Terre Haute, Ind. After his first wife's death, he married
Elizabeth P. Austin in 1883 in Milwaukee. Seabury had three sons,
John, Gerald, and Paul, and one daughter, Edith.

Although Seabury had served on some public bodies prior to being
named to the Board of Capitol Commissioners, nothing prepared him
for the years of duty and exposure he would see on the new panel.

Seabury's title officially was vice president -- the governor
served as president -- but it was clear that Seabury ran the
show. At times, Seabury's determination to ride herd on finances
and deadlines strained relationships on the commission.

Describing Seabury as "a tough-minded, tenacious man," Capitol
historian Neil B. Thompson wrote in Minnesota's State Capitol,
"It was he who directed the board's political strategy through
six legislative sessions and five different governors; it was he
who patiently dealt with architect Cass Gilbert; it was he who
cracked the whip and brought the world-famous painter John La
Farge [creator of the murals in the Supreme Court chamber] into
line."

Even Gilbert realized Seabury's significance, writing in 1917 to
Seabury's widow:

"I hold his memory in most sincere affection. I have the highest
respect for his unflinching devotion to duty and for the great
personal sacrifice at which he performed that duty. . . ."

--Andris Straumanis



Originally published in 1991 in the Session Weekly, a weekly
newsmagazine published by the Minnesota House Public Information
Office.

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