Busy as a Bee in a Bustle, posted on September 30, 2025
I was browsing the website of the Alamance County Historical Museum recently and came across a photograph of a dress made around 1870. The dress was labeled as green moire silk and it sported a bustle. I have always wondered how women who wore such things sat down. Did they simply perch on the edge of their seats? Did they push the bustle to one side? Or did they only wear such dresses standing up?
I contacted the museum and asked if I could reproduce a photo of the dress. They agreed, so here it is and here is their image credit: reproduced with permission from the Alamance County Historical Museum.
As it turns out, the dress was owned by Frusannah Kime Sellars. See the black and white image of her below the image of her dress. She appears to be in costume, as the photo was taken around 1918. I think by then, bonnets such as she is wearing might not have been in style. Her grandson B. Everett Jordan was in textiles, so this might have been to do with that.
Frusannah was born in 1833 and died in 1922 at the age of 89. She and her husband, Dr. Benjamin Abel Sellars had 11 children-7 sons and 4 daughters.
Thirty six years after Frusannah died, the lives of two of her grandchildren would intersect in a very significant way on the very same day. And here is how it happened:
On Thursday, April 17, 1958, Governor Luther Hodges traveled by limousine from Raleigh to Haw River, to visit one of Frusannah’s and Benjamin’s grandchildren, Mary White Scott. The occasion was a sad one, as he was bringing his condolences to Mary, whose husband US Senator W. Kerr Scott had died the day before in Alamance General Hospital.
When the Governor’s driver, Harold Minges, pulled into Senator Scott’s driveway, they were told that Miss Mary as she was called, was not there. She was at Hawfields Presbyterian Church, selecting the plot that would be Kerr’s final resting place. Mary’s mission was urgent; the funeral would be the very next day.
After visiting with “Miss Mary” as she was called, Governor Hodges traveled to Saxapahaw to visit with B. Everett Jordan. After much deliberation, Governor Hodges had decided to appoint B. Everett Jordan to fill the last two years of Kerr Scott’s term in the Senate. Mr. Jordan was a successful mill owner; his factory made textiles. Despite his busy schedule, B. Everett Jordan was ready to accept Governor Hodges’ offer. B. Everett was interested in a career in politics and planned to run for the Senate after his two year term expired. He went on to serve in the Senate from 1958 to 1973.
Mrs. Scott and Mr. Jordan were related; they were first cousins which meant that Frusannah Kime Sellars was the grandmother for both of them.