Robert Seaman

Robert Livingston Seaman (1822 – March 11, 1904) was an American industrialist who was the husband of investigative journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran (better known as Nellie Bly). Born in Catskill, Greene County, New York to William and Ellen Seaman, Robert made his fortune in the wholesale grocery business and in 1869 started the Ironclad Manufacturing Company, manufacturing cans for shipping milk on trains, riveted boilers, tanks, and “The Most Durable Enameled Kitchen Ware Made.” Marriage to Elizabeth Cochran In March 1895, Seaman met journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran, better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, at a dinner party, or on a train, and on April 5, 1895 married her. An article announcing their marriage called him one of the most carefully dressed men in New York. Seaman's loved ones were suspicious, sure that she had married him for his money. One magazine even wondered if it was an example of her "stunt reporting" in which Bly would pretend to be married and then write about it. After their marriage, they resided in his home on West 37th Street in New York City. In 1896, they traveled to Europe, returning to New York in 1899 to take care of problems with his business.