THE SEELA CABIN

Built: ca. 1860s
Location:  South of Weatherford, Parker County, Texas
Owners: Isaac and Rebecca W. Seela
Builder:  Isaac Seela

This 1860s cabin is designed as a hands-on learning adventure.  You may touch, explore and try anything in and outside the cabin! 

Of particular interest is the story of how the original location of the cabin was chosen.  When the Seelas first arrived in Parker County, the first log cabin they built was washed away by a flood.   At that time, there was a tribe of Caddo Indians living near Spring Creek.  Knowing that they would have first hand knowledge of the land, Isaac met with them to determine where the high water of the Brazos River came to during the flood stage.  Heeding their advice, he built his cabin, the one now preserved at Log Cabin Village, above that level.

THE SEELA FAMILY

Rebecca White of Missouri, married Isaac Seela in January of 1827.  Five years later, the family that now included three children, moved south to the small community of Sarcoxie, Missouri.  Rebecca’s father, 112 year old Sadrack White, a Revolutionary soldier from Virginia; her 80-year-old mother; and other members of the White family joined them. 

Rebecca had thirteen children in Missouri.  And eleven of them lived to maturity – quite an extraordinary feat in those days:

By 1854 Missouri's growing population was crowding the Seelas.  So they sold their farm, loaded eight of their children into their covered wagons, and made the journey to Texas.  It is believed that the family went first to Goliad, where they stayed only a short time before moving northward into what is now Parker County where Isaac homesteaded 160 acres on Spring Creek, about twelve miles south of Weatherford, Texas.

Isaac was too old to actively serve during the Civil War.  But he remained on his farm, contributing to the war effort by donating farm produce and by moving several neighboring families to the farm for protection.

Three of Seela's sons fought for the Confederate Army.  Jacob enlisted and served in Company M of the 27th Regiment of Texas Cavalry.  William, who had returned to Missouri in 1854, served in Company C of the 15th Regiment of the Kansas Cavalry.  Isaac Seela, Jr., enlisted in company K of the 2nd Regiment of the Texas Infantry.  On April 7, 1862, he was with General Grant's Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh where he was fatally wounded.  He died in a hospital in Mississippi later that year.

Isaac died in 1873.  The year of Rebecca's death is unknown, but they are both buried in the old Bedford/Blackwell Cemetery.  Their graves, marked only by native rocks, are located on the area west of the Pickard family plot.