Saturday, February 15, 2025

Stratford: The Stories We Tell

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During the month of “love” there’s this…

By David Wright

Town Historian

During the month of “love” there’s this…

John Seiler was born in Germany in 1868. He moved with his wife and her two sons to Stratford in the early 1920’s. John opened a small grocery store with a gas pump at 603 Ferry Boulevard.

John clearly loved the neighborhood children, and they loved him in return. He would often give the children four pieces of candy for a penny when his asking price was three pieces for a penny. In return, the children affectionately nicknamed him “Gramp.”

Donald and Dolores Piskura went to Seiler’s store on a Saturday evening to buy a soda.  Worrying about their safely crossing back over Ferry Boulevard, John guided them across the street, as he had done for many other children. Seiler was struck and killed by a delivery truck on his return trip back across Ferry Boulevard.

The neighborhood boys were so distraught, they took up a neighborhood collection for Seiler’s widow. The boys collected $25 which, converted to 2025 dollars, equals $494.75.

Sunday Herald

October 18, 1942

Free Candy Memorial For Stratford’s ‘Gramp’

Kids Take Up Collection for Aged Pal Killed Doing Good Deed

By Ethel Beckwith

          …Mrs. Seiler was so touched, she didn’t know how to express her feeling to the children. She let it be known and broadcast that on Friday afternoon she would give away all her candy, the collecting committee having first privileges, of course.

They crowded into the small shop. Anything they wanted was theirs.  All they had to do was speak up to Mrs. Seiler, who in a short time had all of the showcase empty, and the shelves, too. 

Any other time, what a madhouse. But Friday the children quietly waited their turns.

Their faces which might have been ecstatic were twisted.  They took their shares and walked out solemnly, with the bags in their hands.

Leading organizers of the collection were John and Billy Leary, sons of the mail clerk, also Donald and Dick Drinkwine, Carl Back and Stanley and Paul Kilty.

Abruptly happiness has stopped for Mrs. Seiler.  Neighbors say she “felt she had to run away.”  Locking house and store, she left Friday night.

At least he died in his own way,” she said of her husband, “doing a good deed.”

The Stratford News

October 23, 1942

A Real Neighbor

By Hollis Stevenson

Did you know that Stratford lost one of its best citizens last week? Maybe, you never even heard of him. But ask any child who lives in the neighborhood of Ferry Boulevard about John Seiler.

Our friend ran a small grocery store and gas station pump on the Boulevard, from which business he and Mrs. Seiler made a fair living. Neighbor Seiler, who was 75, used to see the kids across the street safely, as he feared for them the way speeding cars and trucks try to beat the light at that spot.

John had just returned piloting two of his charges to the other side when a truck got him. 

So, during the upcoming month of love, February, know that in addition to romantic love, there also exists a love for neighbors and community in this town we call Stratford.

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