Lieutenant Governor Henry Seiter

1885-1897

• • •

Henry Seiter was born in Lebanon, Sept. 22d, 1845. After attending the district school in the neighborhood of his father’s farm, at the age of twenty-one he entered McKendree College, from which he graduated in 1870. He also attended a commercial college in Chicago. In March of the same year in which he graduated at McKendree, he also graduated at the law school connected with the University of Michigan.

In September, 1871, in partnership with Rufus Ramsay, he engaged in the banking business at Carlyle. In August, 1873, under the firm name of Seiter & Ramsay, he entered also into the banking business at Lebanon. This bank was the first ever started in that town. After dissolving his partnership with Mr. Ramsay in 1877, he carried on the banking business at Lebanon till 1880, when he sold the bank to Baker, Schaeffer & Co.

In his politics Mr. Seiter was a warm and active supporter. He was elected a representative in the state legislature from St. Clair county in 1878, and was one of that body serving on several important committees. In 1873 he married Alice Radefelt of Lebanon, who died May 9th, 1877. He had two children by this marriage. He then married Mamie Badley of Alton. Her father, William Badley, was a native of Dudley, England. He had one child, Orval Roc Seiter, by this marriage.

Henry and his family lived in the Riggin-Pesold House from June 28, 1885 to 1897. At this point in time Henry and his partner Ramsey had bankrupt the bank, and Henry sold the house to pay back the citizens he owed money to. He moved out of Illinois and passed at the age of 85.