From:
           CherWoodP@aol.com

Dictionary of American Biography, Vol VIII
Platt to Seward
Edited by Dumas Malone
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York 1935

Page 575.
SELLERS, ISAIAH

(c.1802-Mar. 6, 1864), pioneer steamboat pilot, was born in Iredell
County,
N.C., lived and died on the Mississippi, and was buried in St. Louis.
Uncertainty clouds the time and circumstances of his removal to the
Mississippi Valley.  According to Mark Twain’s Life on the Missippi
Sellers
made his inaugural river trip in 1811, "the year the first steamboat
disturbed the waters of the Missippi," but it has also been said that he
went
west in 1825 "when he was quite a young man" (Darby, post, p.213).  His
own
diary (Gould, post, p. 600) shows that he engaged in the commerce of the
lower river from 1825 to 1828, shipping first from Florence, Ala., on the
Rambler, next on the General Carroll, and then on the President.  While he
was on the Carroll he introduced bell-tapping as the pilot’s signal to
take
soundings, a decided improvement over the shouted commands theretofore
employed.  Joining the Jubilee, he piloted his first steamboat to the
upper
river, and in 1836 at Pittsburgh he took charge of the palatial Prairie,
the
first boat with a stateroom cabin to visit St, Louis.  As pilot of the J.
M.
White II, he made perhaps the most noteworthy of all steamboat runs on the
Mississippi.  Leaving New Orleans on May 4, 1844, he brought the White to
St.
Louis in record time of three days, twenty-three hours, nine minutes.
This
mark stood for a quarter century, and by that time cut-offs had shortened
the
river’s course and refueling from barges had come into vogue.  According
to
the diary, Sellers introduced in 1857 the signal for meeting steamboats, a
distinction freely accorded him by river historians (Hyde and Conard,
post,
p. 1922); although the United States Bureau of Navigation has no records
to
verify this, it recognizes that rules and signals later approved by
Congress
"had their source in such men as Isaiah Sellers."  While he frequently
acted
as steamboat master, he preferred the post of pilot, the ninth renewal of
his
pilot’s certificate being issued in St. Louis, Feb. 25, 1862.  River
disasters were common occurrences, but not once did Sellers vessel figure
in
an accident.  This remarkable record won him the confidence of business
men
and caused women passengers to wait for the Aleck Scott, long his boat.
His
years on the Mississippi made him an authority on its habits and changes.
No
other riverman knew landmarks so well as he, and none could point out more
curiosities of nature to admiring passengers.  Under the nom de plume of
Mark
Twain, which Samuel Langhorne Clemons (q.v.) later appropriated, he was a
contributor to the New Orleans Daily Picayune before Clemon’s took to the
pilot’s wheel.  Indicative of his rank on the river were the honors
accorded
him when he died of pneumonia at Memphis on a downstream run.  When the
Henry
von Phul returned his body to St. Louis, flags on all steamboats along the
levee were at halfmast, as they were again seven days later when he was
buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.  His wife Amanda had died twenty-one
years
before.  The marble monument he ordered for his grave—a pilot on watch at
his
wheel—testifies to his high regard for his calling.  Tall, dignified, and
ruggedly handsome, with hair that in his later years was still "black as
an
Indian’s," he was, wrote the second, if better known, Mark Twain, "the
patriarch of the craft."

        (S. L. Clemons, Life on the Missippi (1883); E. W. Gould, Fifty
Years
on the Mississippi (1889); J. F. Darby, Personal Recollections (1880);
William Hyde and H. L. Conard, Encyc. Of the Hist. Of St. Louis (1899),
vol.
IV;  J. T. Scharf, Hist. Of St. Louis City and Count (1883), vol. II;
Daily
Evening Gazette (St. Louis), May 9, 1844; Daily MO. Democrat (St. Louis),
Mar. 10, 11, 1864; Mo. Republican (St. Louis) Mar. 10, 18, 1864; records
of
Bellefontaine Cemetery; information from Iredell County, N. C., county
court,
U. S. Bureau of Navigation, and C. J. Armstrong, Hannibal, Mo.)
I.D.

Cheryl Sellers Peacock
CherWoodP@aol.com

I believe we have another short extract - but, this has most info=
But,. Do We have his kids in MO , probably in these MO Counties?
WHO - WHERE =

MY GOODNESS - IF SELLERS don;'t Study/Research/Send This INFO =
WHO do you think will Do and Continue?

AND , How Did You Get this INFO?

SOMEONE cared enough to Research and Find and Type and Copy and Send to
US

SEEMS, we could Care Enough to Continue !
marie, iowa

FROM GEORGIA
chickflet <chickflet@aristotle.net>

1864 Mar 06 - Capt. Isaiah Sellers died at Memphis, TN; senior of the lower
Mississippi pilots, age 61; funeral at home  of his nephew, Isaiah W. Hood.
[Missouri Republican, St. Louis, MO, 10/17 Mar 1864; see 1830 Livingston
Co., KY for marriage to Amanda M. F. Welch]

              Isaiah Sellers was a person of real importance in the life of
pre-Civil
War St. Louis and the lower Mississippi River.  He lived and died on the
Mississippi
River.  He was one of the greatest pilots the Father of Waters ever knew.
Capt.
Sellers contributed river news to the New Orleans Picayune and he would
sign "Mark
Twain".  Mark Twain was an old river term used by leadsmen to signify 2
fathoms, 12
feet, which meant safe water.  Samuel Clemens took over the pen name of
"Mark Twain"
after the death  of Capt. Isaiah Sellers.  Capt. Sellers introduced
bell-tapping as the
signal to take soundings.  He devised many rules for river navigation.  A
photograph of
Isaiah Sellers' distinctive monument in  Bellefontaine Cemetery in St.
Louis appears in
the St. Louis Globe-Democrat 25 Jul 1935.

        From: GARY
           GSel311405@aol.com

             "The Tombstone of The Original Mark Twain"
    The Gravestone in St. Louis Mo., of steamboat Captain Isaiah Sellers
who
first used the nom de plume Mark Twain, which was adopted by writer Samuel
Clemens to show his admiration for Sellers. For years before his death,Capt
Sellers carried his tombstone with him aboard his ship.

            "Ripley's Believe it or Not"

    hi dave.........

St Louis Missouri..........i've seen the monument online before.
there are several hits on his name "Isaiah" via google.com
here's one............http://members.tripod.com/~Write4801/captains/s.html
i'm sure you'll be able to find the picture now. it's quite unique.
here's one more site.......
http://members.tripod.com/~Write4801/riverboats/j-2.html#JUBIL

dawn Marie Sellers
great-grand daughter to Davis Sellers..........
IOWA 32nd Company F

      From:
           Charlotte Sellers <csellers@hsonline.net>

http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/9336.html
Sellers, Isaiah  b. 1802. d. 1864.
     Captain Sellers, the most famous of the steamboat men plying the
Mississippi Rover
     between St. Louis & New Orleans, was the the first man to use the
pseudonym "Mark      Twain."

      From:
           Charlotte Sellers <csellers@hsonline.net>

Dave,

From: American National Biography v19 pg 631:
Isaiah Sellers b 1802 Iredell Co, NC
- parents not known
- wife Amanda (maiden name unk) d. 1843
- two children (names not given)

IS was reported to have kept a diary from about 1825 when he started
as a steamboat pilot in Alabama and through his 36 years as a premier
pilot on the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans starting in
1828.  ANB reports the fate of the diary is not known. [Isn't that
always the way with diaries!]

ANB lists various additional sources of info on IS, including his
obits in the St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat and the Missouri
Republican, both 10 March 1864.  The report says: "He died from
pneumonia in Memphis. ... When his body was returned for burial in St.
Louis, the flags on all docked steamboats were flown at half mast.
His grave in Bellefontaine Cemetery was marked by a large white marble
monument that depicted a tall man in frock coat and cap standing at a
steamboat wheel."

IS shared his legendary river knowledge in the Picayune (New Orleans
newspaper) under the pseudonym Mark Twain from around 1850 until a
young river pilot named Samuel Langhorne Clemens made fun of them.
ANB reports Clemens (who began using Mark Twain as a pen name only
after Sellers's death) "later regretted having insulted so
distinguished a man."

The bio described Sellers: "Tall, erect and handsome, with dark hair
that he retained to his death, Sellers was a striking figure. By all
accounts he was unfailingly gracious and modest."

Clemens/Twain wrote about IS in _Life on the Mississippi_, one of his
classics.

Both _Life on the Mississippi_ and _American National Biography_ are
available in your area, according to the Hawaii State Public Library
System catalog <http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/hspls/> if you want more
information.

It's a pretty interesting read!

Hope this helps.
Charlotte