Holly Trueman Urie

From Settlement to Homestead Holly Trueman Urie

From Settlement to Homestead: The History of the David Sell Family Pioneers tells the genealogical story of German immigrants who traveled across countries, continents, and oceans in search of religious freedom and farmland. The story begins in Ulm, Germany, in 1744 with the birth of Joseph Söll (Sell). Seeking to leave poverty and disruption behind following the Seven Years' War, Joseph left Germany in 1766 to take advantage of the land opportunity that was offered by Catherine the Great in her Manifesto of 1763. Traveling more than 2,000 miles, he helped establish the Lutheran settlement Colony of Frank along the Lower Volga River. As part of what would be called the Volga Deutsch (Germans from Russia), Joseph's descendents lived and farmed in Frank for another 125 years until political unrest and new leadership in Russia caused them to emigrate from there to seek new opportunities in America. In 1892, David Sell and his family ventured more than 5,800 miles to join a community of Germans from Russia in Marion County, Kansas, where they farmed rented land for another eight years. When land became available in Oklahoma in 1900, David Sell joined a group of 65 of his Volga-German neighbors and traveled from Kansas to Ellis County, Oklahoma, to stake his claim. It is a remarkable story of a remarkable family's perseverance and determination and includes eight generations of the Sell family. From Germany to Russia to the United States, as farmers, homesteaders, and merchants, they truly went from settlement to homestead to become a part of American history and help settle one of the final frontiers.