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 46 years of research. Today's Web post is a Biography of Zilpha Ann Sellers compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 5 Median and is entitled:
"Biography of Zilpha Ann Sellers"
Gordan — Gaddy • 9 December 1830 – 2 March 1913 • Chesterfield County, South Carolina
Zilpha Ann Sellers lived a long and eventful life on the soil of Chesterfield County, South Carolina — born into the twilight years of the American Revolutionary generation and living long enough to see her grandchildren scatter as far as Texas and Oklahoma. Widowed at sixteen, remarried to a first cousin, and the mother of nine children, Zilpha's story is one of resilience, family loyalty, and deep roots in the Cruise Branch community near Ruby, South Carolina. She is Charles Purvis's 4th great-grandaunt, a sister of Hardy Huntley Sellers in the family of Hardy Sellers, Revolutionary War Patriot.
Quick Facts
Full Name | Zilpha Ann Sellers |
Also Known As | Zilphia Ann Sellers; Zylpha Ann Sellers |
Born | 9 December 1830 — Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina |
Died | 2 March 1913 (age 82) — Ruby, Chesterfield County, South Carolina |
Buried | Gaddy-Sellers Cemetery, Ruby, Chesterfield County, South Carolina |
Father | Hardy Sellers, Revolutionary War Patriot (1757–1835) |
Mother | Levinia Gulledge (1811–1849) |
First Husband | Dickson P. Gordan (1821–1846), married 25 June 1845, Anson County, NC |
Second Husband | William Jeptha Gaddy (1828–1906), married about 1854 |
Children | 9 — one by Dickson P. Gordan; eight by William Jeptha Gaddy |
A Daughter of Hardy Sellers — Parents and Early Family
Zilpha Ann Sellers was born on 9 December 1830 in Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, the daughter of Hardy Sellers — a Revolutionary War Patriot — and his wife Levinia Gulledge. Hardy Sellers was already an elderly man by the time Zilpha came along, born back in 1757, which meant father and daughter were separated by more than seventy years. Levinia Gulledge, born in 1811, appears to have been a much younger Second wife.
Zilpha had one full sibling from her mother, Levinia: her brother Hardy Huntley Sellers (1829–1857), who was just a year older than she was. But the Sellers household was a large, blended one. Hardy Sellers had children from an earlier marriage as well, including sons John, Abraham, Philip, and Richard Sellers, and a daughter Mary who married Thomas Gaddy. Two more of Hardy's daughters from that earlier marriage — Phoebe and Jane — had already died before their father, leaving grandchildren (Elijah, James, and Phoebe Gulledge, and Iverson L. Briley) who stood to inherit alongside their aunts and uncles.
History Note — The Nullification Crisis (1832–1833)
Zilpha was a toddler when South Carolina became the center of a constitutional showdown over federal tariffs. The state's legislature declared the tariffs "null and void" within its borders, and for a tense stretch President Andrew Jackson threatened to send federal troops to enforce the law. The crisis was resolved by compromise in 1833, but the states'-rights arguments South Carolina made in 1832 would resurface, with far greater consequences, when Zilpha was thirty years old.
Fatherless at Four — The 1835 Estate and 1836 Court Notice
Hardy Sellers died testate on or about 17 January 1835, when Zilpha was barely four years old. His will named his widow, Levinia Sellers, and their two children, Hardy Huntley Sellers and "Zylpha Ann Sellers," alongside the children and grandchildren of his earlier marriage — a large family to divide an estate among.
Because some of the heirs and defendants named in the resulting equity suit — John Sellers, Richard Sellers, Thomas and Mary Gaddy, and Elijah, James, and Phoebe Gulledge — lived outside South Carolina, the Commissioner in Equity ordered a public notice published in the Cheraw Gazette. That notice, dated 22 August 1835 and printed on 30 August 1836, survives as a rare glimpse of five-year-old Zilpha's name in print: "Levina Sellers, Hardy H. Sellers, Zilpha Ann Sellers vs. John Evans, Turner Bryan, John Sellers and others." The underlying case, later abstracted as Evans, John Exr. vs. H.H. Sellers & others — Bill for Partition, worked its way through the Chesterfield District Court of Common Pleas, Equity Side, over the following years.
A Bride at Fourteen — Marriage to Dickson P. Gordan
On 25 June 1845, near Chesterfield Court House, South Carolina, Zilpha Ann Sellers — not yet fifteen years old — married Dickson P. Gordan (also recorded as "Gordon") of Anson County, North Carolina. The marriage was announced in more than one newspaper. The Fayetteville Observer of 9 July 1845 reported: "Near Chesterfield C.H., S.C. on the 25th, Mr. Dickson P. Gordon of Anson county to Miss Zilphy Ann Sellers, daughter of the late Hardy Sellers." The Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette carried a similar notice on 4 July 1845.
The marriage was brief. Dickson P. Gordan, born in 1821, died in 1846 — the same year the couple's only child, James Dixon Gordan, was born. At just sixteen years old, Zilpha was a widow with an infant son.
Rebuilding — Life in Her Brother's Household, 1850
By the 1850 federal census, the young widow "Zilpha A. Gordon," age 19, was living in Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, in the household of her brother, Hardy H. Sellers, along with her four-year-old son James Gordon. Also in the household were Hardy's wife Mary E. Sellers, an infant daughter Adella, and two boarders, William Rogan and Alexander Blakeney. It was a household rebuilding itself after loss on more than one front — Hardy Huntley Sellers himself would die just seven years later, in 1857, at only twenty-eight.
A Second Marriage Among Cousins — William Jeptha Gaddy
Sometime around 1854, after the 1850 census, Zilpha married William Jeptha Gaddy (1828–1906), the son of James Gaddy Sr. and Amelia "Rilla" Gulledge Gaddy of Anson County, North Carolina. As family notes preserved with her record explain, Zilpha and Jeptha were first cousins — his mother, Aurelia "Rilla" Gulledge Gaddy, was the eldest daughter of Rev. Joel Gulledge, tying the Gaddy and Sellers households together through the shared Gulledge family line.
The 1860 census captured the young family in Chesterfield, South Carolina: William J. Gaddy, age 30, born in North Carolina; his wife (recorded only by initials, "Z.C. Gaddy," age 28); Zilpha's son from her first marriage, James D. Gaddy, age 14; and the couple's own children so far — Thomas H. (age 4), William P. (age 3), and infant Mary E. (age 1).
A Growing Family — Zilpha's Children
Across her two marriages, Zilpha Ann Sellers was the mother of nine children. Her only child by Dickson P. Gordan was:
Child | Birth | Death | Notes |
James Dixon Gordan | 1846 | 1914 | Only child of Zilpha and Dickson P. Gordan |
With her second husband, William Jeptha Gaddy, Zilpha had eight more children:
Child | Birth | Death | Notes |
Thomas Hardy Gaddy | 1855 | 20 Oct 1856 | Died in infancy, Chesterfield Co., SC |
William Preston Gaddy | 1 Apr 1857 | 19 Dec 1949 | m. Eliza Margaret Grier; died Harlingen, Cameron Co., TX |
Eliza Mary Gaddy | 2 May 1859 | 9 Oct 1862 | Died as a young child, Chesterfield Co., SC |
Rillia Lavinia Gaddy | 4 Mar 1861 | 25 Mar 1925 | m. William A. Johnson; died Chesterfield Co., SC |
Jeptha Robert Gaddy | 18 Mar 1864 | 19 Mar 1934 | Died Lisbon, Sampson Co., NC |
Elijah Johnson Gaddy | 3 Sep 1866 | 3 Jun 1952 | Died Kerrville, Kerr Co., TX |
Zilpha Ann Adella "Della" Gaddy | 7 Nov 1868 | 23 Dec 1958 | m. John Franklin Horne; died Chesterfield Co., SC |
Walter Francis Gaddy | 25 Jun 1871 | 1 Jun 1940 | m. Elizabeth Irene Burch; died Chesterfield Co., SC |
Interestingly, the 1900 census recorded that Zilpha and William had been married 45 years and had 9 children, with 7 living. That figure of nine only makes sense if it counts all of Zilpha's children across both marriages — the eight Gaddy children plus James Dixon Gordan from her first marriage — with Thomas Hardy Gaddy (d. 1856) and Eliza Mary Gaddy (d. 1862) being the two who had already passed away by 1900.
Land of Her Own — The 1879 Deed
In October 1879, Zilpha A. Gaddy purchased a tract of land in Chesterfield, South Carolina from Marcus Austin and his wife, G.T. Austin, for $700 — a substantial sum for the time. The land adjoined property belonging to T.T. Burch and a neighbor recorded as Silas Fincher. The deed was recorded on 2 January 1883 in Deed Book 7, pages 113–115, in Union County, North Carolina. That the purchase was made in Zilpha's own name is a notable detail for a married woman of her era, when property was so often held and recorded in a husband's name alone.
The Farm on Cruise Branch — Home and Community
By family account, Zilpha and William made their home on land near Ruby, South Carolina that Zilpha had inherited from her father, Hardy Sellers. The family cemetery — later known as the Gaddy-Sellers Cemetery — sits on that same farm, on the bank of Cruise Branch. A family researcher, Marie Wiggins, who visited the site in 1977, described it as "well kept" and "a beautiful, serene place," a description that has stayed attached to the family's memory of the burial ground ever since.
The 1880 census found the family still in the Court House area of Chesterfield County: William J. Gaddy, 53; his wife Zilphy A. Gaddy, 50; and six of their children still at home — William P. (21), Rilla L. (19), Jeptha R. (16), Elijah J. (14), Zilphy A. A. (11), and Walter F. (8) — along with a boarder, R.D. Kellin, a 55-year-old schoolteacher.
Later Years — Widowhood and a New Household
William Jeptha Gaddy died on 3 April 1906 and was buried in the Gaddy-Sellers Cemetery near Ruby, the same cemetery on the land the couple had shared for decades. By the time of the 1910 census, 79-year-old Zilpha had moved into the household of her daughter, Rilla Lavinia Gaddy Johnson, and son-in-law William A. Johnson, in Mt. Croghan, Chesterfield County — listed in the household as "mother-in-law."
Passing — Death, Funeral, and Burial
Zilpha Ann Sellers Gaddy died on 2 March 1913 at the home of her son-in-law, W.A. Johnson, in Ruby, South Carolina, at the age of 82 — just a few months past her birthday. Funeral services were held at Ebenezer Church, conducted by Rev. T.B. Owen, and she was buried the following day, 3 March 1913, in the Gaddy-Sellers Cemetery beside her husband.
From the Pageland Journal, 11 March 1913
"Mrs. W.J. Gaddy died at the home of her son-in-law, Mr. W.A. Johnson of Ruby, last Sunday. Mrs. Gaddy was 82 years old on the 9th of last December. The funeral services were conducted at Ebenezer Church by Rev. T.B. Owen. She leaves a host of friends to mourn her death and the following children, W.P. of Oklahoma, J.R. of Anson, N.C., E.J. of Texas, W.F. of this county, Mrs. J.H. Horne and Mrs. W.A. Johnson, both of this county. Mrs. Gaddy was an excellent Christian lady." — Chesterfield Advertiser
The obituary's list of surviving children is a small window into a much larger story: by 1913, Zilpha's children had scattered from the Chesterfield County homeplace as far as Oklahoma and Texas, part of the broader wave of Southerners who moved west and southwest in the decades following the Civil War and Reconstruction, even as two of her daughters remained close by in Chesterfield County to the end.
A Life Remembered
Zilpha Ann Sellers's eighty-two years stretched from the years just before the Nullification Crisis, through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and into the early twentieth century — a span that touched nearly a full century of South Carolina history. She buried a father she barely knew, a first husband taken from her before she turned seventeen, and a second husband after more than fifty years together. She raised nine children, weathered widowhood twice over, and held onto land of her own in a time when few women did. Today she rests beside her family in the quiet cemetery on Cruise Branch that bears her married name — Gaddy-Sellers Cemetery — a fitting resting place for a woman who spent her whole life on that same ground.
Zilpha Ann (Sellers) (Dickson) Gaddy my 4th Great Grand Aunt.
Researched and Prepared By
Charles Purvis
CPurvis1@gmail.com
15 August 2026
