Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/314

 SELLERS

SEMMES

SELLERS, Williain, mechanical engineer.was I. .rii in Upi>er Darby. P.i.. Sept. 19. lf^24; son of John ami Elizabeth (Poole) Sellers; grandson of JoiinanJ Mary (Coleman) Sellers, and of William iuid Sarah (Sharpless) Poole, and a descendant of Samuel Sellers, who, with his brother George from Belpre, Derbyshire, England, arrived in Philadelphia in 16S2. George died unmarried. The marriage of Samuel Sellers is the first re- C(»riled ill the Darliy Meeting of Friends, 6tli month. 16S4. to Anna Gibbons, daughter of Henry Gib- bons and Ellen, iiis wife, all of Derbyshire, Eng- lanssession of William Sellers, who was educated at a private school and was ap- prenticed to the machinist's trade with his uncle, J. Morton Poole, for nearly seven years. In 1845 he took charge of the large machine shop of Fairbanks. Bancroft & Co., in Providence, R.I. lu 1S4M he commenced the manufacture of machinists' tools and mill gearing. He was mar- ried, April 19, 1849. to Mary, daughter of Ziba and Eliza (Megear) Ferris, of Wilmington, Del. Mary Ferris Sellers died, Dec. 1, 1S70. In August. 1873. he married Amelie daughter of Daniel F. and Charlotte (Behr) Haasz of Philadelphia. Pa. On the death of Mr. Bancroft, ISjS, the firm of Bancroft & Sellers became William Sellers & Co., and in 1886 the corporation of William Sellers & Co., Incorporated, was established with William Sellers, president and engineer. In 1864 he was elected a member of the American Pliilosopiiical society and president of the Franklin Institute, and in the same year his paper giving tiie first formula ever offered for screw threads and nuts, wa-s read before the Institute, and the formula then offered afterward became the standard for the United States. The angle and the trun- cated form of tliread therein proposed, were adopted by the International Congress for L'Uni- fication des Filetages et des Jauges held at Zurich in October, 1900. In 18GG he was elected a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1868 he was api»ointed a member of the first Fairmount Park commission. In 1868 the Edgemoor Iron Com- pany w;is organized in the state of Delaware, of which lie was elected president, and in the same year he was elected a director of the Phila- delphia. Wilmington & Baltimore R.R. Co., reor- ganized as the Philadelpliia, Baltimore & Wash- ingUjn R.R. Co.. VMi. In 1873, he waselecced one of the two vice-presidents of the Centennial Board of Finance created by act of congress, for the business management of the Centennial exhibi- tion of 1876. He was president of the William lUitclier Steel Works, reorganized it as Midvale Steel Co., 1873-87, and continued as its largest

etockliolder. In 1873 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, and in 1875 was appointed the corresponding member of the Societe d'Encouragement pour LTndustrie National in Paris. His firm's exliibit of machinists tools at the Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1867 received a gold medal; at the Centennial exhibition in 1876 in Philadelphia, the judges reported: "This collection of Ma- chine Tools is without a parallel in the historj' of exhibitions, either for extent, or money value, or for originality and mechanical perfec- tion; " and at tiie Weltausstellung in Vienna in 1873, the Grand Diploma of Honor and five gold medals were conferred upon the firm. At the Paris exposition in 1889, the firm received the highest award, the Grand Prix, together with several medals, and at the close of the ex- position, the names of three coUaborateurs were requested, to whom, as individuals, diplomas were sent; and W^illiam Sellers, in addition, was made Clievalier de la Legion d'llonneur.

SELLSTEDT, Lars Gustaf, artist, was born in Sundsvall, Sweden, April 30. 1819; son of Eric and Eva (Thoren) Sellstedt. He attended schools in Sundsvall and Hernosand, Sweden; visited as a sailor, Africa, South America, the West Indies, and all the countries of Europe, and sailed to the United States on the barque Prudent of New York as a cabin boy in 1834. He served on a (J.S. man-of-war, 1837-40, and entered upon the study of art, particularly portrait-painting, in Buffalo, N.Y.. in 1842, earning money to pay his living expenses and tuition by occasional trips on Lake Erie vessels. He was married, June 11. 18r)6, to Caroline, daughter of Dr. William Knowles and Mary (Gay) Scott of Buffalo, N.Y. He was president of the Fine Arts academy of Buffalo, 1876-77; was made an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1871, and an Academician in 1874. His portrait subjects include: Solomon G. Haven (1856); George W. Clinton (1862); Mil- lard Fillmore (1869); himself (1871): Sherman S. Rogers (1873); William G. Fargo (1874); Isaac Verplanck (1874); Benjamin Fitch (1883). and Grover Cleveland (1884). He also painted m.irine and genre pictures. In Marcii, 1903. he was a resident of Buffalo, N.Y.

SEMMES, Alexander Aldebaran, naval officer, was born in Washington, D.C., June 8. 1825. He was warranted midshipman in the U.S. navy, Oct. 22, 1841; was attached to the ColnvtbvSy Mediterranean squadron, 1841-43. and the Vin- ceiDies, East India .squadron, 1845-46; was gradu- ated at the naval scliool. Annapolis, Md.; axlvanced to passed midshipman, Aug. 10, 1847; stationed at the naval observatory, Washington, D.C., 1849-50 and 1854; served on the Congress of the Brazil squadron, 1851-52; on the coast survey in