Marion Abraham Sells

Brumley family – Marion Abraham Sells was my great-great-grandfather. He was born to Elijah Sells and Phoebe Walker on July 10, 1842, in the Des Moines Territory, Iowa. His siblings were; Sarah Elizabeth, Susannah, and Gideon Phillip Sells. His mother died in 1845 as a young woman of only twenty-five years old. It was also the same year her last child was born so it could have been complications from childbirth but I have found no evidence to prove or disprove. Elijah was now a young widower and raising a family by himself.

His father married a second time to Frances Cox in 1848 in the Des Moines Territory. This union gave Marion half-brothers and sisters; Rachel, Lucinda Jane, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington Sells. It was always curious to my mother and me that they named some of their sons after Presidents.

Marion’s family remained in and around the Des Moines Territory for many years and welcomed in the new State of Iowa. The Des Moines Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from 1838 until December 28, 1846, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Iowa. The family remained in the area as the census shows during 1852 and 1854. Marion and his family went back and forth between Iowa and Missouri.

By the time the 1860 Census came around Marion was eighteen years old living in Jefferson, Clark, Missouri. He meant and married Samaria Alice Thompson-Traister in 1862 and they began their life together in Missouri where they started their family. Their children were Sarah Maria 1863, Marion Emanuel 1865, Dorcas Anna 1867. Columbus 1869, Elijah 1873, Samaria Alice 1874, Amos 1876, Liewedith Edith 1878, Dollie 1881, Lottie 1882, Grover Cleveland 1884, John Wesley Sells 1889. They lost their precious little girls Dollie as infants in 1881 and Lottie in 1882 for unknown illnesses.

When the Civil War broke out, Marion registered for the draft in June 1863 along with his neighbors, friends, and relatives. It is not known if he served in any capacity during the war but as young as he was I am sure he was assigned somewhere.

By the Census of 1880, they still were living in Clark County, Missouri near Chambersburg. On the 1900 Missouri Census, it states that Marion and his wife Samaria were married in 1862. It shows they had 12 children and that is correct. It is the marriage date that is confusing. The marriage record states they were married on May 30, 1869, in Clark County, Missouri, but I have been unable to find the marriage record for 1862. On this census, it says they were married 38 years and that would be correct as of the children’s birth dates.

Samaria died February 25, 1902, at the age of fifty-nine years old, in Chambersburg, Clark, Missouri. In 1910, in Lincoln, Missouri he was living with his son Elijah and his family, he was listed as a widower. By the 1920 Census he was now living with his daughter Edith Sells Hopp in Lincoln he was seventy-seven years old.

On December 22, 1924, Marion Abraham Sells died in Chambersburg, Missouri and is buried in the Chambersburg Cemetery. He was eighty-two years old.

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