Isaiah Sellers

Background

He was born probably in 1802 in Iredell County, North Carolina, United States.

Education

There is no information about his education.

Career

Uncertainty clouds the time and circumstances of his removal to the Mississippi Valley. According to Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi Sellers made his inaugural river trip in 1811, "the year the first steamboat disturbed the waters of the Mississippi, " but it has also been said that he went west in 1825 "when he was quite a young man". His own diary shows that he engaged in the commerce of the lower river from 1825 to 1828, shipping first from Florence, Alabama, 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 the 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 in midstream had come into vogue.

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, February 25, 1862.

River disasters were common occurrences, but not once did a 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.

He died of pneumonia at Memphis.

Achievements

• Isaiah Sellers was the first writer, according to Sam Clemens, to use the pen name "Mark Twain" in a series of newspaper contributions to papers in New Orleans and St. Louis. Besides, Sellers introduced the signal for meeting steamboats, a distinction freely accorded him by river historians. He also made the most noteworthy of all steamboat runs on the Mississippi, he brought his steamboat to St. Louis in the record time of three days, twenty-three hours, nine minutes.

Personality

He was tall, dignified, and ruggedly handsome, with hair that in his later years still black as an Indian's.

Quotes from others about the person

• According to one newspaper account of the Clemens and Sellers relationship:
  
  Sellers was a man to attract attention anywhere, and he also had his peculiarities and mannerisms. One of the latter was a passion to sleep, and that oft-times a little beyond the middle watch when the other pilot of the boat was compelled to do more than his share of duty because of Sellers' somnolent appetite.

Connections

He married Amanda, who died twenty-one years before him.

Spouse:

Amanda Sellers