Aunts & Uncles~John W. Brock & Mary Abigail Sellers Brock

The “Aunts & Uncles” series of biographical sketches are Artificial Intelligence (AI) compiled narratives of selected individuals from my Genealogical database. The selected AI will used the RootsMagic Individual Summary from my Genealogical Software, Roots Magic. All genealogical data is my research material acquired over the past 48+ years of research. Today's Biography of John W. Brock & Mary Abigail Sellers was compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 5 Median. 

 John W. Brock & Mary Abigail Sellers Brock

A Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Family Story

John W. Brock (1847–1895)  ·  Mary Abigail Sellers (1848–1907)

Meet John and Mary

John W. Brock and Mary Abigail Sellers were married in Cheraw, South Carolina, on 14 March 1869. John was a Chesterfield County farm boy, born in Cheraw in 1847 and one of eight children of Squire H. Brock and Rachel Parker. Mary was born in Madison County, Tennessee, in 1848, one of six children of William Eddins Sellers and Elizabeth Parsons, and she grew up in South Carolina after her father died.

Most of the dates for John and Mary (their births, their marriage, and their deaths) come from the Brock-Johns Family Bible, which the family group sheet lists as owned by Ruby L. Johns Purvis. The rest of the story is pieced together from census pages, two land deeds, a newspaper notice, and a 1932 newspaper interview with Mary’s brother Andrew.

A quick heads-up: the family group sheet lists no children for John and Mary, so this story is about the couple, their parents, and their brothers and sisters. If children turn up in future research, this is the place to add them.

Quick Facts

	John W. Brock	Mary Abigail Sellers
Born	1 Sep 1847, Cheraw, Chesterfield, South Carolina	24 Mar 1848, Madison County, Tennessee
Died	30 Aug 1895, Cheraw, Chesterfield, South Carolina	3 May 1907, Cheraw, Chesterfield, South Carolina
Age at death	47 (two days short of his 48th birthday)	59
Father	Squire H. Brock (1805–1888)	William Eddins Sellers (about 1820–about 1854)
Mother	Rachel Parker (1810–1887)	Elizabeth Parsons (1822–1899)
Married	14 March 1869, Cheraw, Chesterfield, South Carolina	14 March 1869, Cheraw, Chesterfield, South Carolina
Siblings	7 (3 brothers and 4 sisters)	5 (4 brothers and 1 sister)
Children	None listed on the family group sheet	None listed on the family group sheet
Burial	Not recorded on the sheet	Not recorded on the sheet

 

Roots: John’s Parents and Family

Squire H. Brock and Rachel Parker

John’s father, Squire H. Brock, was born 5 February 1805 in Chesterfield, South Carolina. Some records call him Esquire, and the 1880 census taker wrote him down as “Esq. H. Brock.” The sheet lists his father as James Valentin Brock (1749–1847); his mother is not listed.

About 1827, when Squire was around 22, he married Rachel Parker (born 1810). Between them they raised eight children, with John arriving seventh in 1847.

Squire shows up in every census listed on the sheet (1830, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880), always in Chesterfield. In 1830 his household held one man in his twenties (Squire), one young woman (Rachel), and two children under five. By 1850 the household had grown to Squire (45), Rachel (35), and six children: Mary A. (21), James A. (19), Elizabeth (17), Sarah J. (9), Samuel (7), and little John W., age 4. In 1860 the house was down to Squire (55), Rachel (50), Sarah J. (15), Samuel O. (14), John W. (12), William M. (7), and an eight-year-old boy named Squire Rivers, the son of Squire and Rachel’s oldest daughter, Mary A., who had married William Alfred Rivers and died in childbirth. So the Brocks took their grandson in and raised him.

The 1850 agricultural census gives a peek at the farm John grew up on: 100 improved acres and 200 unimproved acres, valued at $1,000, with 3 horses, 9 milk cows, 2 working oxen, 20 other cattle, 6 sheep, and 40 hogs. That year the farm produced 300 bushels of corn, 200 bushels of sweet potatoes, 50 bushels of peas and beans, 25 bushels of wheat, 20 bushels of oats, 4 bales of cotton, 12 pounds of wool, 100 pounds of butter, and 2 tons of hay. In other words, a hard-working, mixed farm, where there was always something to feed, milk, plant, or pick.

Rachel died in 1887 and Squire followed her on 10 February 1888, at age 83. His death date comes from the Squire James Rivers Family Bible, and his tombstone in the Brock Cemetery (Brocks Mill, Chesterfield County) gives the same dates, 5 February 1805 to 10 February 1888.

John’s Brothers and Sisters

Name	Born	Died	Notes
Mary A. Brock	1828, SC	1852	Oldest daughter. Married William Alfred Rivers; died in childbirth. Her son Squire Rivers (about 8 in 1860) was raised by his grandparents.
James Albert Brock	1829, SC	1899	Appears in the 1830 census household as a boy under five.
Elizabeth Brock	1833, SC	Not listed	Age 17 in the 1850 census.
Catherine Brock	1837	1917	Not in her parents’ 1850 household.
Sarah Jane Brock	1842, SC	1910	Age 9 in 1850 and 15 in 1860.
Samuel Washington Brock	1844, SC	1924	Listed as Samuel in 1850 and Samuel O. in 1860. Probably the Samuel W. Brock who bought land from Squire in 1875 and witnessed the 1885 deed to John.
John W. Brock	1847, Cheraw, SC	1895	Our John.
William M. Brock	1853, SC	1917	Youngest child; age 7 in 1860 and 18 in 1870.

 

Birth places in this table come from the census; death places for John’s siblings are not recorded on the sheets provided.

Roots: Mary’s Parents and Family

William Eddins Sellers and Elizabeth Parsons

Mary’s father, William Eddins Sellers, was born about 1820 in Chesterfield, South Carolina, the son of William “Old Frozen Bill” Sellers (1790–1844) and Gilly Eddins (born 1781). About 1840 he married Elizabeth Parsons (1822–1899); the date is calculated from the age of their first child, William Riley, who was about 8 in the 1850 census.

Sometime around 1844 the young family left South Carolina for Tennessee. Mary’s brother Andrew remembered that seven families in all, several of them his father’s brothers and sisters, “took a great notion to go west” in the 1840s. Back home, a notice in the Farmers Gazette and Cheraw Advertiser of 28 January 1845 announced a sheriff’s sale of 300 acres, where Gilly Sellers and Noah Sellers lived, taken as the property of William Sellers at the suit of John C. Wadsworth.

The 1850 census finds the family in District 10, Madison County, Tennessee: William E. (30), Elizabeth (28), and five children: William R. (8), Andrew W. (6), James A. (4), Mary A. (2), and baby Luellen, just one month old.

William did not live long after that. Family folklore says he died about 1854 after a fall while helping build a church in Madison County. Ella Kate Kimery told it this way: he was helping ceil a church the community was building, slipped, fell across a pew, and broke his back. No tombstone has been found yet. His wife then brought the children back to South Carolina; one account says she lived with her people near New Hope Methodist Church in Anson County, North Carolina, and Andrew remembered an uncle coming out from South Carolina in 1854 to bring them home.

Elizabeth lived until 1899. The 1860 census finds her back in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, with Mary in the household.

Mary’s Brothers and Sisters

Name	Born	Died	Notes
William Riley Sellers	1842, SC	1865	Oldest. Served in the Confederate army and, per Andrew, was killed at Trevilian Station, Virginia.
Andrew Washington Sellers	1844, Chesterfield Co., SC	1935	Confederate cavalryman, prisoner of war, farmer. See his section below.
James Arnold “Buck” Sellers	1846, TN	1904	Served in the same brigade as Andrew, was wounded and sent home, and started a farm.
Mary Abigail Sellers	1848, Madison Co., TN	1907	Our Mary.
Louise Ellen Sellers	1850, TN	1928	Called “Luellen” in the 1850 census and “Lou Ella” in Andrew’s interview. Married Benjamin Brock.
Alonzo W. Sellers	1854	1860	Born the year their father died; died as a small boy.

 

Birth places come from the 1850 census and Andrew’s interview; death places are not recorded on the sheets provided.

Historical note: Heading West In the 1840s many families left the Carolinas for newer lands in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and the Sellers move to Madison County fits that pattern. The sheet and family accounts disagree a little on the details (Alabama versus Tennessee, 1840 versus 1844), which is common for stories passed down by word of mouth. The 1850 census settles one thing: the family was in Madison County, Tennessee, that year, and the younger children were born there.

 

John’s Growing-Up Years

John was born 1 September 1847 in Cheraw, on the Pee Dee side of Chesterfield District. The Bible entry that records his birth is short and plain, and so is much of what the records say about his boyhood. What we do know is that he grew up on his father’s farm, surrounded by older brothers and sisters, and that by the time he was 12 he was one of three sons still at home, along with his sister Sarah and his orphaned nephew, Squire Rivers.

John was 13 when South Carolina left the Union in December 1860 and 17 when the war ended in the spring of 1865. The sheets provided do not record any military service for him. The war nonetheless reached the Pee Dee region, and Union troops passed through the area in early 1865. After the war, the old South Carolina “districts” became counties, so the Chesterfield District of John’s childhood became Chesterfield County.

Mary’s Growing-Up Years

Mary was born 24 March 1848 in Madison County, Tennessee, so she began her life far from the Carolina farms of her grandparents. She was the fourth of six children, and by the 1850 census she was a two-year-old in a busy household that had just welcomed baby Luellen.

Mary was about six when her father died, and the family’s life changed completely. Her mother took the children back to South Carolina, where they grew up in a household headed by a widow. By 1860 they were in Chesterfield County. Andrew later recalled that he and his brother were put to work on the farm of their Sellers grandmother, who kept a number of enslaved people there, but the boys were expected to work as well. Mary’s little brother Alonzo died that same year, 1860, at about six.

Then came the war. Mary was 13 when it began and 17 when it ended, and her three older brothers all went. William Riley was killed, James was wounded and sent home, and Andrew was captured and held as a prisoner for months after the fighting ended. We can only imagine what a house of women and little ones waiting at home for news must have felt like.

A Wedding in Cheraw

John W. Brock and Mary A. Brock were married on 14 March 1869 in Cheraw. The Bible puts it simply: “John W. Brock and Mary A. Brock was married March the 14th, 1869.” John was 21; Mary was just ten days shy of her 21st birthday. The sheets don’t say how they met or who performed the ceremony, but both families had deep roots in Chesterfield, and Mary’s family had been back in the county for about fifteen years.

Historical note: Four Years After the War When John and Mary married in 1869, South Carolina was still living under Reconstruction. Families across Chesterfield were rebuilding farms, fences, and finances after the war. Both John and Mary had lost or nearly lost family to it: Mary’s eldest brother William Riley was killed, and her brothers Andrew and James had come home wounded or as prisoners.

 

Making a Home: 1869–1895

The best snapshot of John and Mary’s married life is the 1880 census, taken at Court House, Chesterfield, South Carolina (Enumeration District 5, page 325C, dwelling 253). John, a South Carolina native, was listed as 32, and Mary, born in Tennessee, as 32. The lines on the sheet name just the two of them.

Look a few lines further down the same page and you find John’s parents: Squire H. Brock (“Esq. H. Brock,” farmer, 75) and Rachel (70, keeping house) in dwelling 256. In 1880, John and Mary lived just a few dwellings away from his mother and father.

Land from Squire

On 29 August 1885, Squire deeded land to John for $50 (Chesterfield County Deed Book 8, pages 360–362). The tract was about 85 acres on the south side of Westfield Creek and the west side of Wolf Branch, in the lines of Saml. Parker and W. M. Brock (probably John’s youngest brother, William M.). Squire signed with his mark, and Samuel W. Brock and H. A. Wallace witnessed it.

Rachel, then about 75, appeared before notary A. W. Davis on 5 September 1885, was questioned privately, and signed her mark to give up her right of dower in the land. At the end of the deed is a handwritten note that Squire had neglected to except the graveyard and was reserving one acre around it for himself. The sheet doesn’t say whether this is the same Brock family cemetery where Squire was later buried. The deed was transcribed by Charles Purvis.

A decade earlier, in May 1875, Squire had sold a 77½-acre tract on Wolf Branch to Samuel W. Brock for $50, and Rachel had given up her dower right in that deed too. Squire seems to have been passing land down to his sons while he was still living.

Historical note: What Was “Dower”? Under the law of the time, a widow was entitled to the use of a portion (usually one-third) of her husband’s real estate for her lifetime. When land was sold, the wife was examined privately by an officer and asked to confirm she was giving up her dower freely and without pressure. That is what is happening when Rachel appears before the notary and signs her mark.

 

The Final Chapters

John, 1895

John died on 30 August 1895 in Cheraw, two days before his 48th birthday. He and Mary had been married 26 years. His parents had both died within the previous eight years, Rachel in 1887 and Squire in 1888. The sheet gives his death date as 30 August 1895 (the Bible says the same), and a note records that the date was also seen written as 3 August 1895 but was “verified.” His burial place isn’t recorded on the sheet.

Mary, the Widow Years

Mary’s mother, Elizabeth, died in 1899. By the 1900 census, Mary, age 52, widowed, was living at Court House, Chesterfield, in the household of Benjamin F. Brock, listed as his sister-in-law. Benjamin (born January 1851) and his wife Lou E. (born June 1850) were raising their children there, and Lou E. matches Mary’s sister Louise Ellen, who married a Benjamin Brock according to Andrew’s interview. So after John died, Mary seems to have been taken in by her sister’s family.

Mary died on 3 May 1907 in Cheraw, nearly twelve years after John. The Bible says she died at the age of “59 years, 1 month and 10 days.” Her burial place isn’t recorded on the sheet.

Mary’s Brother Andrew: A Confederate Veteran Tells His Story

Our best window into Mary’s family is a 1932 newspaper interview with her brother Andrew Washington Sellers (1844–1935), conducted by Nellie Bristow for the Florence Morning News and reprinted in the Chesterfield Advertiser on 7 April 1932. Andrew was 88 and, as the writer noted, remarkably spry.

Andrew told how he enlisted in 1862 at 17 and served in Company A, Fourth South Carolina Cavalry, Butler’s Brigade, Hampton’s Division, Army of Northern Virginia, under Captain J. C. Craig, much of the time around Richmond and Petersburg. He and a guard detail of eighty-three men were at the Confederate supply depot at Stony Creek when Union troops captured it about 1 December 1864. He was sent to Point Lookout, Maryland, and held until 19 June 1865, well after Lee’s surrender. He still had his release paper and oath of allegiance to show his visitor. Released, he went to Richmond by boat, took the train to Salisbury, North Carolina, and walked the rest of the way home to Chesterfield, three or four days with very sore feet.

Back home he went to farming and, as he put it, never quit. He married Catherine P. Wallace, daughter of Jesse Wallace, and they had eight children: Charles Riley, Aurilla Jane, Mary Ellen, Jesse C., Alonzo H., Andrew J., Fannie, and Kitty. Four of his grandsons served in the World War, and one was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for the entire war. Andrew was living with his son Jesse near Bannockburn in Florence County and wore the Bronze Cross of Honor on his lapel when he posed for the photograph. He also owned up to two “bad habits,” coffee and tobacco, and described the army’s “coffee” made from burnt rice, peas, or corn. His parting words were hospitable: “I haven’t got started good yet.”

In the same interview Andrew mentioned his brothers and sisters, including Mary Ann Abigail, who married John Brock, and Lou Ella, who married Benjamin Brock. He also said he took part in the nefarious activity of the Reconstruction years, groups that used violence and intimidation against citizens and their political allies. We include it because it is part of the record and part of the family’s history.

Historical note: Stony Creek and Point Lookout Stony Creek Depot, south of Petersburg, Virginia, was a Confederate supply point during the long siege of Petersburg in 1864–65. Point Lookout, at the tip of Maryland’s western shore, was the largest Union prison camp for Confederate soldiers, and many prisoners were not released until the summer of 1865.

 

Family Timeline

Date	Event
5 Feb 1805	Squire H. Brock born, Chesterfield, SC.
About 1820	William Eddins Sellers born, Chesterfield, SC.
About 1827	Squire H. Brock marries Rachel Parker.
About 1840	William Eddins Sellers marries Elizabeth Parsons.
About 1844	Sellers family moves to Tennessee (accounts vary on the year).
28 Jan 1845	Sheriff’s sale notice for land where Gilly and Noah Sellers lived appears in the Farmers Gazette and Cheraw Advertiser.
1 Sep 1847	John W. Brock born, Cheraw, Chesterfield, SC.
24 Mar 1848	Mary Abigail Sellers born, Madison County, TN.
1850	Both families are in the census: the Brocks in Chesterfield, the Sellers in Madison County, TN.
About 1854	William Eddins Sellers dies in Madison County, TN. His widow and children return to SC.
1860	Mary’s brother Alonzo dies. Brock and Sellers households appear in the Chesterfield County census.
1862	Andrew Sellers enlists in the 4th South Carolina Cavalry.
About 1 Dec 1864	Andrew captured at Stony Creek, VA; sent to Point Lookout, MD.
19 Jun 1865	Andrew released from prison.
14 Mar 1869	John W. Brock and Mary A. Sellers marry in Cheraw.
May 1875	Squire H. Brock deeds 77½ acres to S. W. Brock.
1880	John and Mary in the Court House, Chesterfield, census, a few dwellings from Squire and Rachel.
29 Aug 1885	Squire H. Brock deeds about 85 acres to John W. Brock (Deed Book 8, pp. 360–362).
1887	Rachel Parker Brock dies.
10 Feb 1888	Squire H. Brock dies, age 83.
30 Aug 1895	John W. Brock dies in Cheraw, age 47.
1899	Elizabeth Parsons Sellers dies.
1900	Mary, age 52, a widow, appears in the household of Benjamin F. Brock.
3 May 1907	Mary Abigail Sellers Brock dies in Cheraw, age 59.
7 Apr 1932	Andrew Sellers’s interview reprinted in the Chesterfield Advertiser.
1935	Andrew Washington Sellers dies.

 

John W. Brock is my 1st Cousin 4X Removed

Mary Abigail Sellers is my Great GrandAunt. 

Research Notes and Open Questions

• Children. The family group sheet lists none for John and Mary, and the 1880 census lines on the sheet name only the two of them.

• Burial places. Not recorded for John or Mary.

• John’s death date. The sheet notes both 30 Aug 1895 and 3 Aug 1895 and says the date was verified; the Bible says 30 Aug.

• Mary’s age at death. Counting from 24 Mar 1848 to 3 May 1907 gives 59 years, 1 month, and 9 days; the Bible entry says 10 days.

• William Riley Sellers. The sheet gives his death as 1865, but the best-known battle at Trevilian Station, Virginia, was fought in June 1864. His date and place are worth a second look. William Riley Sellers died March 23, 1865 of pneumonia while imprisoned at  Elmira, New York (See Grave Grave 2414, Elmira, NY).

• 1875 deed date. The sheet lists the Squire-to-Samuel deed as 12 May 1875, but the deed text and the footnote say the twentieth of May. (Corrected)

• The Sellers move west. Accounts differ on the year (about 1840 or 1844) and whether it was Alabama or Tennessee; and on whether Mary’s mother returned to Anson County, NC, or to Chesterfield, SC.

• John’s service. The sheets record no Confederate service for John. Worth checking the service records.

Sources

• Brock-Johns Family Bible (owned by Ruby L. Johns Purvis): births, marriage, and deaths of John W. and Mary A. Brock.

• U.S. Census: 1830, 1850 (including the agricultural schedule), 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900, Chesterfield County, South Carolina; 1850 Madison County, Tennessee.

• Chesterfield County Deed Book 4, pp. 706–707 (S. H. Brock to S. W. Brock, 1875), and Deed Book 8, pp. 360–362 (Squire H. Brock to John W. Brock, 1885). Transcribed by Charles L. Purvis.

• Squire James Rivers Family Bible (death of S. H. Brock), and James C. Pigg, Chesterfield County Cemetery Survey (1995), p. 1072; Find a Grave memorial 83917775.

• Farmers Gazette and Cheraw Advertiser, 28 January 1845 (sheriff’s sale).

• Interview with Andrew Washington Sellers, Confederate Veteran (Nellie Bristow, Florence Morning News, reprinted Chesterfield Advertiser, 7 April 1932), as recorded in The Chesterfield District Chronicle, Winter 2000, pp. 19–20.

• Ella Kate Kimery and Marie Gulledge Wiggins, family accounts cited on the Sellers family group sheet.                                                                                                                                                                        

• Prepared by Charles Purvis · CPurvis1@gmail.com