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History of Sellersburg
What town has the finest
folks,
and friendly people so dear?
Who believes our town is tops?
We answer loud and clear:
"Why that's our great and wonderful
Sellersburg!
Nice safe and sound Sellersburg!
Pleased and proud to be Sellersburg,
the town that can't be beat!"
-The Sellersburg Pride Song written by Carol Johnson
The following is
taken from the History of the Ohio Falls Cities and Their Counties, Vol. II, Chapter XXIV,
pages 383-394, L.A. Williams & Co., 1882; reproduced in 1999 by
Windmill Publications, Inc. through the sponsorship of The Howard Steamboat
Museum, Jeffersonville,
Indiana. Obvious errors in spelling or grammar
have been changed however an attempt was made to stay true to the original
text. The history of Sellersburg is
indivisibly tied to the history of Silver Creek
Township as a
whole. More will be added to include
additional facts about the town and the present day areas of Hamburg, Speed and Cementville as time permits.
In the original plat the
town of Sellersburg
is spelled Sellarsburgh. This little error, or perhaps the correct
spelling of the surname of Mr. Sellers, the founder of the place, was
discovered by James Van Hook, of Charlestown,
a very excellent gentleman, who had charge of the preparation of a county
map.
Sellersburg is very
irregularly laid off. None of the
forty-two lots have a right angle.
It resembles an isosceles triangle pressed together from its
base. One writer says, “Sellersburg
resembles a box twisted and squeezed together.” The village was laid out in 1846 by Moses
W. Sellers and John Hill. It is
situated on the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis
railroad, about twenty miles from the county-seat. The railroad passes by the east side of
the village and has for a station the smallest house for a waiting-room of
any village in the county (see picture below). It is not over 7x10, and when the train
is about due is packed full of travelers bound for the cities about the Falls. The
station is a noted shipping point.
Here are the famous cement-mills noted in the area.
Moses W. Sellers (see
pictures below) was the first man in Sellersburg who kept a store. His place of doing business was in the
brick house now occupied by Mr. W.H. Harrod, on
the north side of New Albany street. After M.W. Sellers, came his son, A.L.
Sellers, who kept in a frame house opposite his father’s. He is yet doing business at the old
stand. John A. Eisman
has been engaged in commercial pursuits in Sellersburg for many years. He has always done much in the way of
keeping a saloon and furnishing a place where the boys of the village and
country could meet and spend the evening and have what they called a good
time. He keeps what may be properly
termed a general country store.
 
John Schellers(see pictures
below) was a store-keeper in the town not less than thirty years ago. He was born in Floyd county. His place of doing business was on the
northwest corner of New Albany
street. The house is now out of existence.
 
Frederic Dold kept a store in town twenty or thirty years ago,
on the south side of New
Albany street. He left the village long since. The present store-keepers are Messrs.
A.L. Sellers, Jr., William P. Miller, John A. Eisman
(see picture below left), and W.H. Harrod (see
picture below right).
 
The village has never done
much in tavern-keeping; Christopher Eisman,
however, has been engaged in this business for more than forty years. Aside from this house there has never
been any regular place of entertainment.
“In the village there is a would-be tavern with a large sign and
post, which reads, ‘Union Hotel.’”
Presenting yourself at this house for entertainment you are told –
“For your dinner, go to the first cottage below the blacksmith shop on the
left of New Albany street.”
Among the most prominent
of all the blacksmiths of Sellersburg has been Anton Renzt,
who is described by Mr. Harrod as a “wheelhorse.” The
present smiths are A.J Mabrey and John Beck, “who
have as good shops as are in the county.”
(See picture below left for Al Mabrey, Jr.’s blacksmith shop; below right for Henry Slider’s
stables; these businesses were adjacent to each other.)
 
Probably the first
physician in Sellersburg was Dr. Stage, now of Scott county. Drs. John Poindexter and Meek were
practitioners in this vicinity for a number of years. The physicians now are Drs. Covert, Hauss, and Sallee.
Mr. Moses W. Sellers was
the first postmaster in Sellersburg.
The office was established soon or immediately after the Jeffersonville, Madison
& Indianapolis
railroad was completed. It was in
the southwest corner of New Albany and Utica streets. The house is now occupied by Mr. Harrod as a dry goods and grocery store. Mr. A.L. Sellers was next in
succession. He had his office on the
southeast corner of the same. W.H. Harrod was the third postmaster, in the same house
where Mr. Sellers had his office.
The incumbent is W.P. Miller, who has been in charge of the office
for about one year. John Schellers was postmaster for about eight years,
beginning in 1872. His office was on
the northwest corner of New Albany and Utica streets. Mails were carried at first once a day
each way, then twice a day, now three times a day.
The first school-house in
the neighborhood was built in 1835, or soon thereafter, on the Utica and Salem
road one-half mile west of town. The
means for building the house were raised by subscription. The land on which the house stood was
donated by Mr. Jeremiah Jackson.
After the school was taken to Sellersburg, making the village the center
of the district, the land on which the old school-house stood reverted to
the original owner. The first
teachers were Messrs. Veach, Arthur Bills,
Spenser, and Joshua Smith.
Sellersburg has a pretty
frame school-house with two rooms.
It stands on New Albany
street, in the
northern part of the village.
(Picture below is school in 1890’s)
In the village there is a
flouring-mill, built in 1874-75, by a company under the name of H. Williams
& Co. (see picture below). This
is the only flouring-mill ever built in Sellersburg.
Among the first settlers
of the village were M.W. Sellers; John A. Smith who, however, lived nearby;
John Anson, Henry Bottorff, Peter McKossky, and Absalom Pettijohn. There are in the village now about three
hundred people, three churches, two saloons, three dry-goods stores, one
grocery, two blacksmiths, two shoe-makers, and three physicians.
Many of the citizens are
employed by the cement companies.
These mills furnish employment regularly from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty hands. Many of the
hands are German, and are people of steady habits and economizing
industry. Many of them own the
houses in which they live. There is
no need of being a loafer in this busy little place. People are bent on living well, and
strive to attain a position which will, during old age, release them from
hard labor.
Owing to the earliness
with which Silver Creek township was settled, some
of the first schools in the county were originated in the Silver Creek valley. They were like most other schools of that
day. The school which, perhaps, more
than any other, deserves mention, was the one kept
by Richard Slider, or on his farm, on the bank of Elk run, as early as
1801. Of course the house was a rude
affair. Scholars were sent from the
thin settlements roundabout, and were only in attendance from six to eight
weeks within the year. Among the
first teachers were James McCoy, Andrew McCafferty,
George McCulloch and Spools and Spenser Little. The old Slider school was kept in running
order for a number of years, after which, on account of untoward
circumstances, it ceased to exist.
Mr. Wells’ school, on Camp
run, was early set in motion. It was
not so ancient as the Slider school, but is
generally recognized as of pioneer relationship by many of the
settlers. Mr. Ballard was one of the
first teachers. After the State
school laws came into force, the first of what are now called district
schools was the John A. Smith school-house.
There are in the township at present six schools and about four
hundred and twenty-five scholars.
Mr. James Brown, now of
Wood, but who for many years was a citizen of Silver Creek township,
engaged in farming and whip-sawing, speaks of the early schools thus: “The
first school-house of which I have any knowledge was built on Camp run, a
quarter of a mile above where the Jeffersonville, Madison &
Indianapolis railroad crosses the creek.
The house was built of logs; and the windows, which sufficed for
light, were made by cutting a log partly out on each side of the
house. Across the holes were pinned
perpendicular sticks, with greased paper pasted over them, which served for
glass. A large mud-and-stick chimney
was at one end of the house. Long,
rude puncheons, with the upper side smoothed by means of a broad-axe, and
legs put in the outer side, served as seats when turned upside down. Another house, pretty much after the same
fashion, and built about the same time, was the Cunningham Settlement
school, a quarter of a mile above where Hamburg now stands, on the State
road leading from Jeffersonville to Terre Haute. Around this house at one time was quite a
large graveyard; but it with the house has long since disappeared, with now
but a single evergreen to mark the old site.”
Mr. Brown says also of the
old Redman mill: “The first mill I have any knowledge of was an old-time
water-mill, with a saw-mill attached to it, about two and a half miles from
where the Jeffersonville, Madison
& Indianapolis
railroad crosses Silver creek. It
was built and owned by Rezin Redman, a Tippecanoe veteran.”
The same gentleman, in
speaking of other things, says: “Great changes have taken place since then
in regards to the forests of the township.
Many of the settlers, the pioneers of the forest, those who came
here before the canebreaks were cleared off, have
passed away, leaving, however, impressions which time can never erase.”
In speaking of fruit he
says: “Wild fruits in the forest at that time (1810) were quite
common. Towards the fall of the year
apples lay profusely on the ground in different places, also wild plums and
grapes. Now there are scarcely any
left.”
John A. Smith’s tavern on
the old State road, one mile and a half southeast of Bennettsville,
was one of the first stopping places for travelers in the township. It was on this highway that a stage made
regular trips between Salem and Jeffersonville; and
here at Smith’s tavern horses were changed and passengers given time to
alight, stretch themselves, take a nip of whiskey
or a bowl of toddy, and again take their seats for the rest of the
journey. The buildings were made of
logs—dwelling house and all. A part
of the old building is yet standing, though a few more years will convert
the logs into their original elements.
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