JOHN E SELLSTROM

The first recorded automobile fatality in the city of Austin was a well-known and highly respected Manor businessman. The Galveston Daily News said this about him;

"HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM" 

Manor, Tex Feb 25, 

"Mr. John E. Sellstrom, who was so quickly called to this final account early this morning in the city of Austin, was held in high esteem by citizens of this place. John Sellstrom was a well-known, reliable businessman of this place. He came to town from the country some twelve or fifteen years ago and went to work in the lumber business and had climbed up to the head of the large firm of Sellstrom & Rich of Manor. He married several years ago, but his wife died about five years ago. Mr. Sellstrom leaves two sisters and three brothers."

Born August 2, 1876 of parents who both came to this country from Sweden, John Edward Sellstrom became involved in the lumber business in Manor as a young man. As early as May 1896, at the age of 20, his name was being featured in Manor Lumber Co. ads in a Swedish newspaper called the Texas Posten.

By January 1900 Mr. Sellstrom’s name was the only one being shown in the ads of the Manor Lumber Co. Translated into English it said, “Mr. John Sellstrom would like you to visit The Manor Lumber Co’s lumber yard that he may be able to show you what they have in the way of building materials”. Another ad stated, “Mr. John Sellstrom is every bit Swedish.”

After moving to Manor in 1904, Mr. George J. Rich joined the firm and it became known as Sellstrom and Rich Lumber. By 1905 the Sanborn Fire Maps showed Sellstrom and Rich Lumber Co. in the same location that had been shown as Manor Lumber Co. on their 1900 map.

When the Manor Independent School District was formed in 1903, John Sellstrom was elected one of the first trustees of the school board. He was reelected to this position in 1906.

In February 1905, John Sellstrom was one of 11 businessmen who filed for a charter to build and operate a general hospital or sanitarium in Manor.

The Sixth Annual Announcement of the Manor Public Schools for the 1908/1909 school year featured this advertisement:  

In the early morning hours of February 25, 1910 Mr. Sellstrom and four friends were leaving Austin, after having spent the evening there, to return to Manor. Riding in an almost new, 30 horsepower, Chalmers-Detroit automobile with Mr. Sellstrom driving, they were heading east on sixteenth street, going at a speed of almost 50 miles per hour, when one of the front wheels of the car broke causing the axle to dig into the ground. The result was that the car flipped completely over (perhaps twice) and landed back on its tires headed in the opposite direction from which it had been going. All five men were thrown from the car. The four friends received varying injuries, from which they soon recovered. Mr. Sellstrom suffered a broken neck and died very soon after the accident. He was 33 years old.

Two days later, a special train of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad left Austin at 11:30 AM carrying the body of Mr. Sellstrom to the Burkland train station where it would be removed and buried in the Palm Valley Cemetery (a Swedish cemetery located in what is now Round Rock) beside his wife, Esther Dorothea Swenson Sellstrom, who, after a short illness, had died just over 3 years earlier at the age of 28.  Approximately 150 friends were expected to attend the funeral and burial. The train remained at the location to transport people back to Austin at the conclusion of the services.

Note: Sellstrom and Rich Lumber Co. continued in existence in Manor for about 25+ years after the death of John Sellstrom. The business, as well as the land on which it was located, was purchased in February 1911 by Swante August Sellstrom, brother of John, from his siblings, the other four heirs to the estate. In February 1934 his partner, George J. Rich was found by his wife in the bedroom of their home with a gunshot wound to the head. He died shortly afterwards. Sellstrom and Rich Lumber Co. became Carlson Lumber and Hardware Company sometime in 1938.