JOHN
S. MARTIN SELLERS:
Born
18 Oct 1860 in AL.; died 22 Apr 1925 in Limestone Co. Texas Married Martha L. McClinton 29 Nov
1859. Martha was born 21 Feb 1841 and died 9
Jan 1920. Both are buried at
Prairie Grove Cem. in
Limestone Co. Tx.
John lived in or near Blue Creek in the 1870 census
and received his first grant in 1876 for land in Section 28, Twnshp 19 R-5W.
This is the section just NE of Blue Creek Cem.
(See Maps). He
received another grant in 1885 for adjacent acreage and next to his sister Mary
and in the same section as the 1884 grants to Gurley. This was granted 10 Sep 1885.
John
and Martha had 7 children, one of whom died at infancy. The family, excluding Isaac Monroe Sellers,
moved to Limestone Co. Tx
around 1887. Their neighbors in AL,
Sarah and Riley McElroy had moved to Limestone Co. earlier in 1885. All were influenced to move to Texas by another former neighbor,
James Kennedy who loaned Riley the money to buy his property near Shiloh, Tx. The Sellers family traveled
by oxcart to McCalla in Jefferson Co. where the women
and smaller children caught the train.
The men and older Boys moved their belongings and farm implements by
wagons to Texas. According to GW Sellers, one of the sons, the
trip took them 6 weeks.