Friday, March 29, 2019

Crowell Family Photo

This is a "Crowell" family portrait from Cape Cod- Dennis Historical Society- but you can see there are many Sears who are part of this family!

http://hdl.handle.net/10766/3174

 Top row L to R: Edwin Dillingham Crowell, Louisa Maria (Sears) Crowell;
 :2nd row, L to R: Prince Sears Crowell, Polly Dillingham (Foster) Crowell, Minerva (Handren) Sears;
 :3rd row, L to R: Persis Sears Crowell, Polly Dillingham Foster, Joshua Sears;
 :4th row, L to R: David Sears, Nathan Foster, Polly Seabury (Sears) Foster.

So I made a sketch (below the photo) of who i think each person in the photo is with birth and deaths adn the relationships among these folks. I think Polly Dillingham Foster appears twice in the center of the portraits- once younger, once older?

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Barnabas Sears, Jr - 1818-1894

The History of Barnstable County is online at the "Web Archive" aka The Wayback Machine - and there is a neat sketch of the home of Barnabas Sears, Jr, (1818-1894) son of Barnabas and Hannah (Crocker) Sears. https://archive.org/details/historyofbarnsta00deyo/page/484
I had the chance to visit the Bass River Baptist Church's cemetery (9 Feb 2007) and photograph a number of the Sears tombstones there. Barnabas is buried there even though he was once member of Middleboro Cong, Church? His 3rd wife- Susan H Crosby's- tombstone is the same design so maybe she was Baptist?
-Hist of Barnst Co, p. 500- Town of Yarmouth - In 1854 John K. and Barnabas Sears built a steam planing mill on the north side of the street, where they resided. They added machinery for grinding, all of which was a convenience to a large community. This was continued until 1865, when the importation of dressed lumber, instead of the rough stock, rendered the business unprofitable, and four years later the building was removed to Hyannis.p 501 Barnabas Sears."This citizen of South Yarmouth was born September 13, 1818. He is the second son of Barnabas Sears, deceased, with whose genealogy the reader of the preceding pages is familiar. Unlike most lads of the Cape, Barnabas turned his mind to mechanics instead of the sea. After such educational advantages as his own village afforded he went to Nantucket at the age of seventeen as an apprentice to the carpenter trade, and there for a short time he attended an evening school. At the age of twenty-one he returned to South Yarmouth, but was induced to spend the subsequent season on the island before he made a permanent residence in his native place. With his brother, John K., he engaged in the building and planing mill business as has been mentioned in the village histories of South Yarmouth and Hyannis. In the fall of 1873 he, with his older brother, as J. K. & B. Sears, established a lumber yard at Middleboro, where Barnabas removed, remaining there until 1887, when he returned, leaving the business with his youngest son, Henry W. Sears, who continues it. Mr. Sears has been three times married; first to Ruth H. Crowell, daughter of Rev. Simeon Crowell, whose portrait appears at page 492. They had four children, three of whom died in infancy, Simeon C, then the only survivor of his mother's branch of an illustrious family, met an untimely death on board the ship Fleetwing, off Cape Horn. He was only sixteen when, against the wishes of his parents, he made his first voyage with Captain David Kelley, and during a snow storm fell from the main yard. Twelve days after his fall his body was consigned to the waters of the Pacific. By his death, that branch of the Crowell family has become extinct. The wife and mother died October 13, 1850. Mr. Sears' second marriage was in October, 1852, to Deborah M., daughter of Captain William and Lydia Clark, of Brewster. She died April 22, 1885, leaving three children: Isaiah C, who was born in 1853 and married Sarah P., daughter of Timothy Crocker; Henry W., who was born in 1869, and married Martha, daughter of James and Lucy Pickens, of Middleboro; and Etta Frances Sears, born 1866. The present Mrs. Barnabas Sears, to whom he was married May 2, 1886, was Sarah H., daughter of Hatsel and Jerusha Crosby, and widow of Edwin F. Doane. She has one son, Walter H. Doane. Mr. Sears has persistently declined to hold office, prefering the social relations of life to the strife of party. He is a republican politically, with a strong tendency to promote the cause of temperance wherever an opportunity is presented. He has been earnest and forward in that cause as well as in every other good work. He is a member of the Middleboro Congregational church, but earnestly supports the religious societies of his village. In 1849 he erected his present fine residence, the subject of the accompanying illustration, where he is passing the twilight of his well-spent days in the quiet enjoyment of the association of brothers and sisters and in the full confidence of the entire community.