My Genealogy Hound

Hon. J. F. Sellers is a prominent attorney of Perry County, and an honor to the legal bar. He is a son of Burell J. and Elizabeth (Sweeney) Sellers, the former born in North Carolina on January 25, 1819, and a son of Richard and Rebecca Sellers, born in 1791 and 1796, respectively. Richard Sellers was a soldier in the War of 1812, who fought for his country with all the ardor of a patriot, and left the battlefield with the proud consciousness of having done a soldier’s duty. He and his wife were the parents of eleven children, of whom Burell was the third child born. The latter was married to Miss Elizabeth Sweeney on April 21, 1840, and had six children by this union, of whom J. F. is the only one now living. In 1857 Burell Sellers moved with his family to Perry County, Ark., and settled at a point near the mouth of the Fourche, where he entered land and farmed until his death, on February 24, 1864, his wife surviving him until April 28, 1881. J. F. Sellers was reared and remained on his father’s farm until he was twenty-two years old, when he began the study of law, a profession for which he had the profoundest admiration. He had no instructors but his law-books and his intelligent brain, but he mastered his studies, and obtained as good a store of law knowledge as though he had attended the best university of that period. In 1873 he was admitted to the bar, and the following year commenced to practice, since which time he has ascended from the bottom to the topmost rank in his profession. He owns one of the finest law libraries in this section of the State, and though now an experienced and successful attorney, is almost as much a devotee of his books as when he first began. In 1872 he was elected to the position of county clerk and served one term, and in 1883 he was elected to the legislature, in which he has served three terms. He is at present a member of that body, and chairman of the judiciary committee of the house. Mr. Sellers is a brilliant parliamentarian, and during the absence of the Speaker in the last session he was unanimously chosen to fill his place pro tem. He is editor of the News, published every Friday at Perryville, the only paper issued in Perry County and one of the most readable in the State. On December 23, 1866, Mr. Sellers was married to Miss Polly Brazil, a daughter of Moses Brazil, one of the earliest settlers of this county, and eight children have been born to their union: Marion (born January 18, 1868, died March 16 of the same year), Jordan (born January 3, 1869), Lucretia A. (born August 27, 1871, died August 24, 1875), Walter L. (born November 25, 1874, died April 25, 1875), Addie (born March 5, 1876), Calvin (born August 3, 1879), Jack (born July 20, 1883) and Edward H. (born February 24, 1887). The success Mr. Sellers has attained and the eminence which has come to him are a fitting illustration of what merit will secure. He began life as a poor boy with no education but what he learned by his own application, but steadily he has gone upward from year to year, pushing himself towards the goal of his ambition by the spirit of determination which has remained with him and marked his after life, until now he stands as an example that should infuse new life and new courage in the breast of every young man struggling for a position among the country’s honored men.