The “52 Cousins” series of biographical sketches are Artificial Intelligence (AI) compiled narratives of selected individuals from my Genealogical database. The selected AI will used documents and data from my RootsMagic Genealogical Software. All genealogical data is my research material acquired over the past 46+ years of research. Today's Biography of Phillip Sellers Thurman (1896-1941) was compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 4 and is entitled:
"The Phillip Sellers Thurman Family"
Lives Lived in the Heart of the Carolinas
February 14, 1886 – April 19, 1941
Ruby, Chesterfield County, South Carolina
Overview
Phillip Sellers Thurman was born on Valentine's Day, 1886, in the small rural community of Ruby, Chesterfield County, South Carolina. He grew up in the post-Reconstruction South, married young, raised a large and lively family of ten children, and worked hard all his life — first in the cotton mills that defined so much of Piedmont Carolina in those years, and later as a carpenter. He died in 1941 at just 55 years old, but he left behind a legacy that stretched through two more generations. His wife, Pauline, would carry on for another thirty-one years.
This biography covers the years 1886 to 1972 — from Phillip's birth to the death of his wife, Annie Pauline — a period that witnessed the end of the Reconstruction era, two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the transformation of the rural South.
Parents & Family Background
Phillip was the son of William James "Dock" Thurman (1852–1932) and Susannah Wood Sellers Thurman (1855–1939). Both of his parents were South Carolinians, and they raised their family in and around Chesterfield County during a time of great change in the South. "Dock" Thurman lived to the age of 80, and Susannah lived to be 84 — long lives for that era — which means Phillip's own death at 55 preceded both his parents' passing by several years only in the case of his father, while his mother outlived him by over two years.
The family surname on his mother's side — Sellers — was significant enough that it became Phillip's middle name, a common practice in Southern families to carry forward a maternal family name. It's a tradition worth noting because it also shows up in the next generation: his wife's maiden name was also Sellers (Annie Pauline Sellers), though the two Sellers lines appear to be distinct families.
Phillip's Siblings
Phillip grew up with five siblings, all born in South Carolina:
James Perkins Thurman (1880–1964) — the eldest brother, who outlived Phillip by more than two decades.
William Frank Thurman (1883–1962) — another older brother who lived into his late seventies.
May Susannah Thurman Webster (1892–1972) — Phillip's younger sister, named after their mother. She shared her final year with her sister-in-law Pauline, both passing in 1972.
Carrie Thurman Eddins (1894–1984) — the youngest sister, who had the longest life of the siblings, living to age 90.
John Thomas Thurman (1897–1961) — the youngest brother, born a decade after Phillip.
It was a close-knit family rooted in the red clay country of Chesterfield County. Growing up in the 1890s in rural South Carolina meant farming, close community ties, and the ever-present influence of the local church and cotton economy.
Marriage to Annie Pauline Sellers
Around 1910, Phillip married Annie Pauline Sellers, known to everyone as Pauline. She was born on November 10, 1893, in Chesterfield County — making her about seven years younger than Phillip. Her parents were Samuel Joseph Sellers Jr. (1861–1927) and Martha Senella Ellen Sellers (1876–1943).
The 1910 U.S. Census gives us an early snapshot of the young couple. They were living in Court House, Chesterfield County, and listed as having been married for less than a year. Phillip was 24 and Pauline just 16. They had no children yet, and a boarder named Lee Hancock, age 23, shared their home — perhaps a friend or cousin helping with household expenses.
It was the beginning of a marriage that would last until Phillip's death in 1941, and that would produce ten children. Pauline outlived her husband by more than thirty years, dying on September 6, 1972, in Lancaster, South Carolina. She was buried on September 8, 1972, at Ruby Cemetery in Ruby, Chesterfield County — alongside Phillip, back in the community where both had their deepest roots.
Her obituary, published in The Columbia Record on September 7, 1972, described her as the former Pauline Sellers, a daughter of the late Samuel and Martha Nell Sellers, and the widow of Phillip Thurman. She was survived by a sister, Mrs. Wade Roberts, and a brother, Jim Sellers, both of Columbia.
Life, Work & The Cotton Mill Years
Like so many families in the Piedmont South during the early twentieth century, Phillip and Pauline's life was shaped by the rise of the textile industry. South Carolina's cotton mills transformed entire communities, pulling farm families into mill villages and offering steady — if demanding — industrial wages in exchange for long hours and company-owned housing.
By 1930, the family had moved to Gills Creek in Lancaster County, and the census that year shows Phillip working as a "Cloth Baler" at a cotton mill. This was physical, repetitive work — baling finished cloth for shipment — but it was steady employment during a decade that would soon bring economic catastrophe to the entire country. The Great Depression began in 1929 with the stock market crash, and by 1930 unemployment was already climbing steeply across America. Mill towns like those in Lancaster County were not spared.
By 1940, the last census in which Phillip appears, his occupation had changed to "Carpenter" — a skilled trade that suggests either a career shift or that he combined mill work with carpentry over the years. The family was living at Lancaster Mills-Springdale, still in Lancaster County. Phillip was 54, Pauline was 46, and several of their children were still at home.
The 1940 household included daughters Mildred (age 18) and Margaret Lynn (age 23), sons Gerald (age 13) and Billy (age 12), and notably, a grandson — Bobby Lynn, age 7 — already living with them. It paints the picture of a busy, multigenerational household that was common in working-class Southern families of that era.
World War I Draft Registration
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, all men between certain ages were required to register for the draft. Phillip registered, as the law required. His draft card from 1917–1918 describes him as a white male, born February 14, 1886, residing on Route 1, Chesterfield County, South Carolina. He was noted as having a medium build, medium height, dark brown hair, and light blue eyes — a vivid little physical portrait from a century ago. His wife Pauline is listed as his nearest relative.
There is no evidence that Phillip was called up for active service — the war ended in November 1918, and many registrants in his age group were never deployed. But the registration is a reminder of the enormous disruption that World War I brought to American life. Over four million Americans served in uniform during the conflict, and even those who stayed home faced rationing, economic disruption, and the grief of sending neighbors and relatives to the front.
Children
Phillip and Pauline had ten children together, all born in South Carolina. They were a close family, and many of the children appear in census records living at home well into adulthood. Here is what we know about each of them:
1. Cecile Elizabeth Thurman (1911–2007)
Born November 12, 1911, in Chesterfield County. Cecile was the eldest child. She married David Brice Harden Sr. (1910–1992), and in the 1950 census she appears living with her husband in Springdale, Lancaster County — notably with her widowed mother Pauline living in the household as well. Cecile passed away on January 25, 2007, living well into her nineties.
2. Rosa Lee Thurman (1912–1986)
Born in 1912 in Chesterfield County. Rosa Lee appears in the 1930 census as "Rosell," age 18, still living at home. She passed away in 1986.
3. Josephine Thurman (1914–2005)
Born January 10, 1914, in Chesterfield County. Josephine — sometimes listed in records as Nellie Josephine — lived to be 91, passing away April 13, 2005, in Lancaster County.
4. Mary Margaret Thurman (1915–1998)
Born December 13 or 22, 1915 (records vary slightly), in Chesterfield County. Her married name, as noted in her obituary, was Mrs. Mary Margaret Stavracos. She passed away February 2, 1998.
5. Dorothy Bell Thurman (1917–1988)
Born May 7, 1917, in Chesterfield County — the same year her father registered for the World War I draft. Dorothy passed away June 10, 1988.
6. Madeline Pauline "Mattie" Thurman (1918–1989)
Born in 1918 in Chesterfield County. Mattie — who carried her mother's name, Pauline — passed away in 1989. Her birth year is also significant in family records because it appears on a document that helped verify her parents' information.
7. Mildred Fay Thurman (1921–2000)
Born October 6, 1921, in Ruby, Chesterfield County — back in the family's home community. Mildred was the youngest daughter still at home during the 1940 census, when she was 18. She later moved north, and she passed away December 24, 2000, in Baltimore, Maryland.
8. Samuel Gerald "Bo" Thurman (1926–1988)
Born August 31, 1926, in Chesterfield County. Gerald — nicknamed "Bo" — was just 14 years old when his father died in 1941. He passed away October 31, 1988, in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
9. William James "Billy" Thurman (1927–1998)
Born August 14, 1927, in Chesterfield County (though some records list North Carolina). Billy — named after his paternal grandfather, William James Thurman — was only 13 when his father passed away. He served his country (suggested by his death at a Veterans Administration Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina) and passed away April 28, 1998, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Columbia, SC.
Death & Burial
Phillip Sellers Thurman died on April 19, 1941, in Gills Creek, Lancaster County, South Carolina. He was 55 years old. The world was a turbulent place at the time of his death — the United States had not yet entered World War II (that would come later that same year, in December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor), but the conflict in Europe was very much in the news, and the country was already on a wartime footing.
He was buried the very next day, April 20, 1941, at Ruby Cemetery in Ruby, Chesterfield County — the same community where he had been born 55 years earlier, and where his wife Pauline would eventually be laid to rest beside him in 1972. His South Carolina death certificate lists his father as W. J. Thurman and his mother as Susie Sellers Thurman, and names his wife as Annie Sellers Thurman.
His Find A Grave memorial (ID #53681263) was created on June 14, 2010, and has since been visited and commemorated by family members. A flower was left on the memorial as recently as January 24, 2026, by Fran Bundy — a touching reminder that Phillip is still remembered.
Pauline's Later Years (1941–1972)
After Phillip's death, Pauline lived for another 31 years. She appears in the 1950 census living with her eldest daughter Cecile and son-in-law David Brice Harden Sr. in Springdale, Lancaster County. This was a common arrangement — a widowed mother moving in with her children — and it speaks well of the family's closeness.
Pauline had applied for Social Security benefits, which would have provided at least some financial support in her later years. Social Security had only been established in 1935, so Pauline was among the early generation of Americans to benefit from the program.
She died on September 6, 1972, in Lancaster, South Carolina, at around age 78. The newspaper notice in The Columbia Record described her as a woman of faith whose funeral service was held at Second Baptist Church. She was survived by her sister Mrs. Wade Roberts and brother Jim Sellers of Columbia. Her burial, two days later on September 8 at Ruby Cemetery, completed a long life lived entirely in the Carolinas.
Historical Context: 1886–1972
To appreciate the world Phillip and Pauline lived through, consider what happened during their lifetimes:
Phillip was born in 1886, just twenty-one years after the end of the Civil War, in a South that was still finding its footing under Reconstruction-era policies. The Jim Crow system was being codified across Southern states during his childhood, and the cotton economy — which would define his working life — was king.
By the time Phillip and Pauline married around 1910, the textile mill was transforming the Piedmont South. Mill villages like those in Lancaster County offered a different kind of life than sharecropping or tenant farming — still hard, but with a paycheck and company housing. Millions of rural Southerners made this transition in the early twentieth century.
World War I (1914–1918) touched every American family through the draft, bond drives, and rationing. Phillip registered but appears not to have served overseas. The influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, one of the deadliest in history, killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide and reached every corner of America, including rural South Carolina.
The Great Depression (1929–1939) devastated the textile industry and mill towns like the ones where the Thurmans lived. Wages were cut, mills closed or reduced hours, and families scraped by on whatever they could find. The 1930 census catches Phillip working as a cloth baler at the height of this uncertainty.
World War II (1941–1945) began for America in December 1941 — just months after Phillip's death. Several of his sons would have been of draft age during the war years. His son Billy's death at a Veterans Administration hospital suggests military service at some point.
By the time Pauline died in 1972, the country had lived through the Korean War, the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of President Kennedy, the moon landing, and the Vietnam War. The South Carolina she died in was a dramatically different place from the one Phillip had been born into eighty-six years earlier.
Phillip Sellers Thurman is my 2nd Cousin 3X Removed.
Annie Pauline Sellers is my 2nd Cousin Once Removed.
Prepared by Charles Purvis
Sources: U.S. Federal Census Records (1900, 1910, 1930, 1940, 1950); SC Birth, Death & Delayed Birth Records; WWI Draft Registration Cards; U.S. Social Security Applications & Death Index; Find A Grave Memorials #53681263 & #53681288; The Columbia Record, 7 September 1972.
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