DR. JOHN WARD SELLERS
Dr. John Ward Sellers was
born in 1827 Alabama. His parents names are not
known for sure but thought
to be Matthew Sellers and Sarah Jane Ward due to
the naming patterns and
verbal family history which indicates he lived neighbors to
his brothers, Solomon, Edmond
and Joel, while in Coryell County, Texas. They are
all neighbors in the 1870
census. John was neighbors to Matthew's daughters,
Rebecca Sellers Whatley
and Elizabeth Sellers Wilson, in the 1860 wise county
census and again in the
1880 Burnet County census. John's parents came from
North Carolina, with several
other families of Sellers, Wards, Wilsons and Godwins.
On November 22, 1845, in
Pike County, Alabama, John married Lynia Jane Godwin
born 1830 in North Carolina.
They were blessed with daughter, Emmaline Bethania
born 1850 (m. Levi Dean,
Jacob L. Bruner) and son, Marvel Whitney (became
physician) born July 7,
1853, (m. Rebecca Jane Wilson) before coming to Texas, in
1854. John and Lynia Jane
settled down to raising cattle and children in the Cactus
Hill area of Wise County,
by 1860. They had Laura Francis (became famous artist,
philanthropist in Beaumont)
born 1856 (m. Henry Davidson, Jeff Morrow, Alfred
Busha, William Kreiter)
and Orrin Pierce (became physician) born 1859 (m. Lula
Wilson). Unfortunately the
War Between the States interrupted their lives and John
served with the Texas Frontier
Regiment of Mounted Rangers, Texas State
Troops-CSA under Colonels
Norris and McCord from March 15, 1862, until March 1,
1864, when honorably discharged.
By 1870, the family had moved to Coryell County,
where they lived on the
old Edmond place about 10 miles north of Gatesville. Here
they had Oliver Lofton born
December 24, 1861, (m. Idella Custer) and Bell Zora
born August 28, 1866, (m.
James A. Oldham). John Ward was a physician and
a sheep man. Lynia Jane
died sometime between June 1869 and June 1870 and
is buried near Gatesville.
John remarried on October 20, 1870 in Coryell County,
to Mrs. Nancy R. (Clemons)
Sirman, born 1848 Georgia. They were living in Burnet
County by the 1880 census.
He made a trip out to Glorieta, New Mexico, in the
winter of 1888, to visit
his son, Dr. Marvel Whitney Sellers. After having climbed
a mountain, John became
ill and never recovered. He died and was buried there,
far from home, on January
1, 1889. Nancy died in 1898 and is buried in Bethel
Cemetery, Katemcy, Mason
County.
Submitted by great great granddaughter, Lynda Wyatt Green