The History of Sellersburg: From its Founding to the Sellersburg Incident

Sellersburg, Indiana, was founded in 1846 by Moses Sellers. The town was a peaceful place for decades as settlers moved inland, but the pressure to find additional resources soon followed. In the early 1980s, a regional airport base called Clark Regional Airport was built to handle small private aircraft. In 1994, Fuzzy Zoeller, a local PGA golfer, opened the Covered Bridge Golf Club, which he had designed.

He used it to organize celebrity golf tournaments and to raise funds for local charities. The universities closest to Sellersburg include Ivy Tech Community College - South Central, Bellarmine University and Hanover College. The 1930 census shows that Phillip Oliver Miller owned a butcher shop in Sellersburg and Raymond and James Kenneth, his sons, worked as butchers. A black and white photograph of the railroad depot building, driver and passenger train in Sellersburg, Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1907 reveals that there were no black people or families living in Sellersburg or around the town of Silver Creek.The Sellersburg incident is one of the most notorious events in the town's history. In February 1883, a black man was lynched for allegedly raping a white woman.

The incident has been passed down through generations of locals with the warning “don't let the sun set on you”. It is said that the loser of a race between two men had to push the winner in a mail cart from the Ernest Davis Pharmacy in Speed to Sellersburg. Today, Sellersburg is a thriving community with many attractions and amenities. It is home to a regional airport base, golf courses, universities and more. Despite its turbulent past, Sellersburg has grown into a vibrant city with much to offer.

Joan Riise
Joan Riise

Subtly charming twitter nerd. General zombie evangelist. Freelance web guru. Award-winning beer buff. Freelance twitter geek.

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