Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 405
ALFRED SELLERS

Alfred SELLERS, who is numbered among the pioneer band who sought for themselves a home in this goodly portion of Iowa, has been a resident of Harrison County, since 1853 and hence a short sketch of his career is truly befitting in this connection. He is now a resident of section 21, Union Township. He first settled at Union Grove, where he became a "squatter." He and his uncle bought out some old Mormon claims, upon which had been erected log cabins, and a few acres of hazle-brush land under cultivation. Here our subject remained with his uncle about three years, and then purchased eighty acres of land; forty of which was Government land, and the remainder he bought of the county, paying $1.25 per acre. This land was fenced by rails, stakes and posts riven from the native forests by his own hands.

Among the improvements that he put upon this place was a house 18x20 feet and twelve feet high, with an addition, 8x20 feet. Here our subject remained for twelve years, when he sold the place and removed to Council Bluffs, where he rented land one season; then went to Illinois and framed one year, when he became convinced that no state was quite equal to the Hawkeye, so he moved to Des Moines, where he was employed at carpenter work one season, but by a force of circumstances, again returned to Illinois, where under contract, he hauled coal for two years, and then moved back to Harrison County, Iowa.

Of his earlier life, it should be said that he was born in Ohio, and was the son of Peter and Mary SELLERS, who were natives of Pennsylvania and New York respectively. They were the parents of two sons -- William (deceased) and Alfred, our subject.

Mr. SELLERS, of whom this sketch is written, was united in marriage during the month of June, 1841, to Betsy Ann KINNET, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth KENNET, by whom five children were born -- Mary, Salem (deceased), Elizabeth, Amanda, and Jane.

After nearly a quarter of a century of married life, Mr. SELLERS was bereft of his wife, who died about 1864, and three years later, married Matilda, daughter of Henry and Frances PECKENPAUGH, who were natives of Indiana, and had a family of eleven children in the following order -- Justice, Stephen, Lewis (deceased), May (deceased), Harvey, Thomas (deceased), Didama (deceased), George, Matilda, Parker, and Virginia.

By Mr. SELLERS' second marriage, six children have been born -- Emma, February 8, 1878; Annie, April 7, 1869; William, July 1, 1870, deceased; Mary, August 7, 1873, deceased; Lovinia, September 21, 1874, deceased; and Rosy, May 19, 1877.

Mr. SELLERS' second wife had been previously married and by such union had two children -- Leona, born October 10, 1860, and Edora, January 17, 1862.

Return to 1891 Biographical S Surnames Index

Back to 1891 Biographies Index