Return to Index

1. SUBJECT:

Bowman—Sellers Place.

2. LOCATION:

On Smith’s Creek, about twelve miles north of Harrisonburg, Virginia, on the East side of Route #11, about a mile distant from Highway.

3. DATE:

About 1815.

4. OWNERS:

• Original land ownership supposed to have been Zebulon Harrison, Sr., the Burnt Records interfere with tracing back.
• Burnt Records again.
• Henry Conrad from George H. Chrisman Commissioner, May 1834 record of deed burnt.
• Jacob Bowman from Henry Conrad, July 17, 1839, B.R.D.B. 13, page 413.
• Samuel Bowman and other heirs of Jacob Bowman, D.B. 2, page 380.
• Reuben Sellers from Samuel Bowman and other heirs, 1854, D.B.2, page 380.
• Jacob S. Sellers from Reuben Sellers 1893.
• Walter J. Sellers present owner, by deed, April 15, 1915, D.B. 102, page 151, consisting of one tract of two hundred and three acres, twenty poles, one tract of nine acres, thirteen poles.

1. DESCRIPTION:

The plan of the house is an L; it is two stories, brick, English bond. There is a chimney on either end and a modern porch with flat roof and four square posts or columns. The hall is wide with colonial stairway reaching to attic, turned rail, newels and balusters with square bases; it is three flights. The rooms are large and airy and fireplaces in all rooms; the mantel in the parlor is hand carved and beautiful in it’s simplicity. The door hinges are of the common kind known as Butt hinges and the locks on the room doors were hand latches originally, and some of them are still in use, while those on the outer doors were of the plate pattern with hand lever on top of the lock with a longer lever on the outside of the door. Only one of these remain which is still used. The cellar shows the foundation of stone, mostly flat with here and there larger ones; the floor is paved with flag stones as in the foundation; the brick walls are thirteen inches thick generally, but thicker in some places to accommodate the flues in the wall running to the chimneys. The partition walls on the first floor add strength and solidity to the whole structure, which is likely to stand for years yet to come.

See form 3686, attached.

2. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:

Just who built the Bowman-Sellers house has not been established definitely. It seems to be the impression of some people that the house was built by Jacob Bowman. If it were built by him, it must necessarily have been much later than 1816 as shown in item 4, as he did not come into possession of the property until 1839.

Miller Bowman, the father of Jacob, seems to have been the first of that name to live on Smith’s creek, the others of that name being located and living on Linville Creek, west of, and about ten miles distant from Smith’s Creek.

Miller Bowman is said to have been a son of John Bowman, born July 1^st or August 26, 1750, and died by drowning in 1832 at the age of eighty-two years. December 24^th, 1812 he married Phoebe Harrison, daughter of John Harrison and wife, who was Grace Woodley. After the death of her husband, Phoebe went to live with her youngest son, Andrew J. in Centerville, Tennessee. Miller and his wife made their home on Smith’s Creek, and it is not impossible that he built the present brick house now know as the Sellers place, about 1816, though it has not been possible to connect him with the ownership of the property. Their

Bowman-Sellers Place

Page 2

children were Margaret, who married ….Taulman; Jacob Smith and Andrew Jackson, born 1816, who married first, Ann Welsh, and second, Sarah Miller See. Andrew, as a youth, aged about sixteen following the death of his father, removed to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and later, to Centerville, Tennessee, where his mother made her home with him. The three children were born on Smith’s Creek, and Jacob the elder of the two boys, continued to live there, and it may well be that it was he who built the present brick house, especially as his name is popularly connected with it as the builder, though if such is the case, it must have been sometime later than 1816.

The original ownership of the land probably dates back to Zebulon Harrison, Sr., who owned lands in this neighborhood and at Lacey or Big Spring not far distant, either by grantor by purchase from others. It is difficult to trace back these old places to their original ownership. The most authentic and reliable source of information is to be found in the Court House Records, so many of which were destroyed during the War Between the States, and is almost every case the recorded deed which would throw most light on the subject, is the very one the record of which is not recorded, because the record was either totally destroyed or very greatly mutilated.

The Bowmans and the Sellers too, were prominent, thrifty and highly respected people, of the community, good farmers, Charitable and kind hearted, one of the Bowman family being especially generous to Bridgewater College, in his last Will and Testament.

3. ART:

Photograph

4. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: