Seward
County is named in honor of William Henry Seward, Secretary of State under
President Lincoln and Johnson. The county was originally called Greene County
when it was formed on January 26, 1856. The name was changed to Seward on January
3, 1862.
William
Seward was born in the village of Florida,
NY in 1801. He practiced law before entering politics. He served in the New York Senate, then became governor of
New York. He was one of the earliest political opponents of slavery. He was elected to the US Senate in 1849.
Lincoln choose him as secretary of state after he was elected in 1860. In
April 1865, Seward was accidentally thrown from his carriage and severly injured. While lying
ill at his home, he was attacked by a fellow conspirator of John Wilkes Boothe.
Sewards wife, an invalid, died from the shock of that attack. Seward gradually
regained his health and remained in the cabinet until the expiration
of Johnson's term in 1869. His greatest work was the purchaseof Alaska from Russia in 1867 For $7,200,000. He died in 1872.
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