Miami Union
November 18, 1897
The funeral of Harvey G. Sellers was held at his former home at 1:30 o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, and the services were conducted by Rev. O. M. Sellers. There was a profusion of flowers, a magnificent cluster of chrysanthemums sent by the Shellabarger family from Washington; an anchor from Mrs. Rowena Sellers, of Springboro; and a cluster of tea roses from Mr. and Mrs. Hedges. The services were short but impressive, the minister taking the occasion to read the memorial of the Miami County Bar. The remains were interred in Riverside Cemetery.
Harvey Gallaher Sellers was born in Warren County, Ohio, September 28, 1819. He was one of twin brothers in a family of seven children. His parents were John and Elizabeth Gallaher Sellers. His education was obtained at the Springboro Academy and he afterwards read law in the office of Judge George J. Smith in Lebanon, being admitted to the bar in the spring of 1842 by the Supreme Court on circuit. This was in his twenty-third year. The following autumn he moved to Troy, where the entire remainder of his life was spent in the practice of law until stricken down by paralysis in 1878, since when he passed his days with the family of his daughter and in company with this favorite authors. He was married to Mary, daughter of Rev. Richard Brandriff, April 24, 1848, but in less than three years death removed his wife, January 1, 1851. The fruit of this union was two daughters, Mrs. Annie A. Dye being the only survivor. On Sunday last, November 14, Mr. Sellers passed away in the peaceful quiet of his home. Until the deceased ceased his active professional career he was a prominent figure at the bar, and in this death Troy loses the last of the former generation of lawyers, who figured in the practice twenty-five or thirty years ago. He was a man of attractive personality, fine presence and pleasing address. Possessed of a kindly and genial nature, he won friends with ease. While not educated, in the ordinary sense of the word, he was an omnivorous reader, and his memory was a vast storehouse of information on nearly every subject. As a lawyer, he brought to bear in every case a splendid enthusiasm and a superb self-confidence, with a careful and painstaking preparation. This, combined with no mean powers as an orator and reasoner, made him a convincing force to a jury, while his adroitness and skill in handling witnesses oftentimes seemed to make the worst of the better cause. Broadly catholic in his views, he was charitable in judging others, and neither politics nor religion affected his personal relations with his friends or acquaintances. In politics he was originally a Whig, being elected Prosecuting Attorney of the county by that party many years ago. In the campaign of 1856 he cast his political fortunes with the Democratic party, and, while not in through accord with all the tenets of that party, he acted with it until his death. The high esteem in which he was held by the members of the local bar is shown in the resolutions in commemoration of his death.
The following items were noted elsewhere
on the same page of the same newspaper.
Mr. Wm. Sellers and Mrs. Geo. H. Sellers, of Springfield, were in attendance upon the funeral of Harvey G. Sellers, Tuesday. Mr. and Mrs. P. J. Hedges, Mrs. Jane Brandriff, Mr. George Brandriff and Mr. John Young, of Piqua, attended the funeral of H. G. Sellers, Tuesday.
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