Napa County CA Archives Obituaries.....Sellers, S. H.  1850
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Regina Gualco rmgualco@yahoo.com August 4, 2006, 10:17 pm

from History of Napa and Lake Counties (1881)
Murder of S. H. Sellers.---Sometime during the year 1850 George C. Yount and
Isaac Howell had a lawsuit which grew out of some trouble concerning their
stock. This man Sellers was a Justice of the Peace and rendered a decision in
favor of the Howell side of the case. A man by the name of Hugh McCaully, who
was a relative of Yount's, met Sellers some time after the trial, in a store,
and began to upbraid him for the way he had decided in the case mentioned above.
Sellers was sitting on a barrel and was answering McCaully in a very sarcastic
manner. Finally the latter became enraged, and whipped out a large knife with
which he cut Sellers through the back, killing him almost instantly. McCaully
was arrested, tried, and found guilty of murder in the first degree, and was
sentenced to be hanged. His friends then set about to obtain a pardon for him,
which they prevailed upon Governor McDougal to grant. Some Napa people chanced
to be at the State Capital (Benicia) that day and learned what had been done.
Captain T.G. Baxter chanced to be at Benicia with his little steamer, and these
parties chartered him to bring them to Napa with all possible speed. He crowded
his little engine to her utmost and reached the destination ahead of the party
who was bringing the pardon, who came overland. The news was spread and the
people determined to make short and quick work of the matter, but decided to
wait if possible till nightfall to do it. The ferry was disabled so that when
the officer came from the Governor bringing the pardon he could not be ferried
over. Nobody would give him any assistance, and left him to get over the stream
as best he could. He proceeded by way of the Trancas, but when he arrived in
town everything was as still as death. He proceeded to hunt up the man for whom
he had the pardon, and found him hanging by the neck, dead and almost cold. The
building in which he was hanged stood on the south-east corner of Main and
Second streets, and was shipped around the Horn, all ready to put together when
it arrived here.

Additional Comments:
Source: [Lyman L. Palmer], History of Napa and Lake Counties, California (San
Francisco: Slocum, Bowen & Co., 1881), pages 143-144.

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