I can assure you he was literate. A handful of multi-page handwritten letters exist in the collections of the Hall of Fame, but I don't recall ever seeing even a single authentic autograph that made it into the hands of collectors. Like so many people of his time, he had beautiful penmanship. The signatures on the letters matched up favorably with a signed document once in the hands of the government before being destroyed in a fire. Thankfully, some very forward-thinking person thought it wise to convert these documents to microfiche prior to this fire, so while the originals are long gone, the copies live on in perpetuity. Seymour would have been made to sign the document himself, so if he had been illiterate, he would have signed with an X mark, but he signed his full first, middle and last names on that item.
Many years ago, I do remember seeing a tiny cut that was purported to be that of Seymour, but at the time, we could not authenticate it due to lack of exemplars. I was naturally suspicious of it to begin with. It wasn't until years later when doing research in Cooperstown that I chanced upon those letters. From what I can recall of the cut, it bore zero resemblance to the genuine article.
Last edited by BillyCoxDodgers3B; Today at 06:37 AM.
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