Dr. Adam Sellers

Other Events:

• Occupation: Physician
• Census: 1850, Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, United States; as Adam Sellars, physician, head of household
• Census: 1860, Lebanon, Turtle Creek Township, Warren County, Ohio, United States; as Adam Sellers, physician, head of household
• Newspaper: 4 Jul 1861; The Weekly Western Star. Lebanon, Ohio, 4 July 1861, p3
• Census: 1870, Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, United States; as Adam Sellers, physician, head of household
• Census: 1880, Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, United States; Address:
  Cincinnati Pike
• Obituary: 15 Mar 1894; The Western Star (Lebanon, Ohio) 15 March 1894

Notes:

27 May 1808 Mentioned in the probate records of Peter Sellers as Adam Sellers five years and six months of age.

Adam Sellers appears in a list of Physicians in Turtle Creek Township, Warren County, taxed on their incomes in 1840.

OLD LETTER.....
Mr. Peter Sellers,

The following are some of my recollections of the Sellers' family. Three brothers emigrated from Germany some two centuries ago. One settled in Pennsylvania; one in Maryland, and the other in Virginia. They were German Lutherans. Our families are from the Virginia branch. My father, Peter Sellers, was the son of Adam Sellers. Your grandfather, Jacob Sellers, was the son of John Sellers, and they were cousins. They married sisters by the name of Runkel.

My father immigrated, with other families, soon after Wayne's treaty with the Indians, say 1798, by way of the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, from Brownsville, Penn. known as Red Stone. Their horses were brought through from that point along Indian trails. Their wagons and other effects were floated down in family boats, to Columbia, then known as Round Bottom, five miles above Cincinnati, then called Losantville. My father remained there one or two years and raised some grain. He was followed about two years after by your Grandfather Jacob Sellers, and made the first purchase of land from Sims in that valley. By examining the deed that has been transcribed by order of the Commissioners, from Hamilton County, records to Warren County, records, my father's deed is dated January 4, 1799. Their names in the deeds are written "Celler", in one or two places, "Sellers". I recollect when it was very uniformly spelled with a "Z".

About 70 years ago, 1817, my grandfather, then living on the Shenandos River, Rockingham County, Va. (where all of that branch of the family then lived) being a widower about 72 years of age, and having a desire to free his slaves, wrote to my brother, William Sellers, to come to Virginia and superintended the disposal of his property, and pilot them to this wilderness, as it was then considered by them. The trip was made in two four-horse wagons in about thirty days, camping out every night. They stopped one week at our house, one mile north of Lebanon.

At that time he purchased 206 acres of land of George Hamsbarger, where the old road crossed Clear Creek, on the west side of that road. The creek running from East to West through the center of it, and the road from Ridgeville to Springboro running along the north bank. The house was endwise north of the road. His only daughter, Christine Null, lived one or two miles below. He freed all his slaves, (Negroes) about 16 in number, I think, and purchased land for that in Darke County, Ohio. He had to give security under the then laws of Ohio, for their support. Some of them became distinguished for wealth and morals. One of the sons graduated in one of our colleges and became a preacher in the African Methodist Church. He called to see me some 25 years ago.

Grandfather Adam Sellers was born in 1742 and died in 1821, 79 years of age. I find a final record of the Administrators' Wm. Sellers and Christine Null, dated June 2, 1823, and amounting to between ten and eleven thousand dollars. I was absent at that time in Virginia with power of attorney from my mother and the heirs of your grandfather by his first wife, looking after their interests in Grandfather Runkels' estate.

This imperfectly written sketch is written in great haste, and is about the best I can do at the age of 85. You may find some items of interest to someone, in it. Yours truly, A. Seller [Source: Transcript of a letter dated "Lebanon, Ohio June 28, 1887", addressed to Mr. Peter Sellers and the original written by A. Sellers (Adam); the letter was copied and put in a letter written by P. Sellers (Peter Sellers 1896) and later copied by Fred A. Sellers in a letter dated January 5, 1960]

Birth:
near Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio

Newspaper:

ATTACHMENT.
Adam Sellers, pl'ff, }
vs. }
Arthur Compton, def't }
Before George W. Frost. J. Warren county, Ohio
On the 7th day of June, A. D. 1861, said Justice issued an Order of Attachment in the above action, for the sum of $11.35; and said action is continued for hearing until the 24th day of July, 1861, at 8 o'clock, A. M.
Adam Sellers.

Obituary:

Death of Dr. Adam Sellers,
Dr. Adam Sellers, one of the oldest and best known residents of Lebanon, died at his room in the VanNote property, on Broadway, Tuesday afternoon at 1 o'clock, in the ninety-second year of his age. Death came as the result of no particular illness, but from a general failure of vital powers, brought on by Dr. Sellers' extreme age. He has been exceedingly feeble for some time and the end was not unexpected.
Dr. Sellers was born near Lebanon, July 4, 1802. He was the second son of Peter and Blanche Sellers. His father was a native of Germany, who settled first in Virginia and afterwards, in 1789, moved to what is now Warren county. Dr. Sellers was one of four children, three sons and one daughter. The latter, in after years, became the wife of William Cameron, who, in partnership with John McLean, published the Star in the early days of the present century.
Dr. Sellers, about the time he attained his majority, visited Virginia. In 1824 he was converted at a Methodist camp meeting and joined the church in whose communion he died. One year later he was licensed to exhort. He joined the Ohio conference in 1826. In 1828 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Roberts and in 1832 was ordained elder by Bishop Emory. He intended to devote his life to the ministry but owing to some throat trouble his voice failed him and he was compelled to abandon his chosen calling.
He accordingly entered the mercantile trade at Springfield, with his father-in-law, only to lose everything in the financial crisis of 1837. He then turned his attention to medicine and in 1840 graduated from Worthington Medical College. For a few months he practiced at Newark but in the fall of the year he came to Lebanon and from that time to 1879 actively practiced his profession here. In the latter year he withdrew from practice and he has divided his time between Lebanon and his mom's home in Cincinnati. At one time he was president of the Lebanon Medical Society.
Dr. Sellers was married twice. His first wife, Miss Mary A. Nixon, lived but a few months after the marriage. In 1833, he married Miss Nancy Colbert Bretney, who died in 1873. They had two children, a daughter, who died in 1862, and a son, William B. Sellers, of Cincinnati.
The funeral services will be held this (Thursday) afternoon at one o'clock, in the Methodist church, of which he was such a faithful and consistent member. They will be conducted by Rev. J. P. Porter, who will probably be assisted by other ministers who were friends of Dr. Sellers. The remains will be interred in the Lebanon cemetery.

Adam married Mary Ann Nixon on 19 Aug 1829 in Warren County, Ohio, United States. Mary was born in 1808 in Warren County, Ohio, United States; died in Dec 1829 in Warren County, Ohio, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adam married Nancy Colbert Bretney on 19 Feb 1834 in Clark County, Ohio, United States. Nancy was born on 12 Feb 1819 in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, United States; died on 25 Jan 1871 in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, United States; was buried on 27 Jan 1871 in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]