Person:James Sears (18)

JAMES SEARS. Among the men of note and public-spirited citizens of Tipton Precinct, this gentleman occupies a position in the front ranks. Although not an old resident, he has become widely and favorably known on account of his enterprise and intelligence. He is well educated and well informed, and in all respects a citizen calculated to assist in the social and moral advancement of his community. He owns and operates a well-regulated farm of 160 acres on section 36, and makes a specialty of live stock, shipping one or two carloads annually.

In noting the career of a man who has raised himself to a prominent and worthy position in life, it is the most natural thing in the world to glance backward at the place and people whence he sprang. Mr. Sears is of an excellent family; his parents were both natives of the Empire State, his father, James, Sr., born in Orange County, and the mother, in her girlhood Miss Hester Rutan, in Sullivan County. The paternal grandfather, also named James, was born in Dutchess County, N. Y., and moved later to Chenango County, during the period of its earliest settlement. He cleared a farm, established a sawmill, accumulated a good property, and lived to the advanced age of eighty-six years. He traced his ancestry to Ireland. The Rutans were of German descent.

The father of our subject was reared to manhood on a farm in his native county, and upon starting out for himself in life took up his abode in Sullivan County, N. Y., where he engaged extensively in agriculture, and like his father before him, also operated a sawmill. He became prominent in the affairs of Sullivan County, represented his township in the Board of Supervisors many years, and after the organization of the Republican party was one of its most active members. He departed this life in March, 1888, at the old homestead, when ninety-six years old. The mother had preceded her aged partner only a few weeks, dying in February of that year, at the age of seventy-eight. She was a good woman in the highest sense of the term, and a conscientious member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

To the parents of our subject there were born ten children, namely: Margaretta, Abigail, Elizabeth, Isaac, Deborah, James, Mary, Alfred, Charles and William. Charles died when about thirty-six years old. James, of our sketch, was born at Phillipsport, Sullivan Co., N. Y., April 15, 1838, and remained a member of his father's household until twenty-six years old, assisting in the employments of the farm, and for two or three years worked on the Delaware & Hudson Canal. He was married, Sept. 7, 1865, to Miss Lucretia Crossman, a native of his own county, and a lady of fine education.

Mr. Sears soon after his marriage purchased 100 acres of partially improved land in Sullivan County, N. Y., upon which he operated seven years. There was a blue stone quarry in the county, which promised excellent results to any man who could work it understandingly, and of this Mr. Sears determined to become the possessor. He accordingly sold his farm and invested a portion of his capital in the quarry, which he began working, and shipping the product thereof to the various cities East. The young State of Nebraska, however, seemed to offer better inducements than even the blue stone quarry, and accordingly, selling out once more he crossed the Mississippi, and a few weeks later we find him settled on a farm in Otoe Precinct, Otoe County, this State, which he conducted until the spring of 1882, when he changed his residence to this county, purchasing the farm which he now occupies.

All the improvements which we behold to-day arouud the Sears homestead were effected by the present proprietor. The fences are all of his building and the forest and fruit trees of his own planting. The land is finely watered by a branch of the Nemaha. In addition to his cattle and horses Mr. Sears is considerably interested in full-blooded Poland-China swine. His farming operations are carried on in that systematic manner which is characteristic of the man.

To Mr. and Mrs. Sears there were born two daughters and one son, namely: Bertha M., Olive L. and Elmer. Bertha is the wife of Joseph H. Clapp, a well-to-do farmer of Tipton Precinct, this county; they have two children, Leslie and an infant unnamed. The other daughter is at home with her parents, as is their son Elmer. Mr. and Mrs. Sears are members in good standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. S., politically, votes the straight Republican ticket, as have all the male members of the family so far as he has any record of them. He takes satisfaction in the thought that he cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. He frequently has been sent as a delegate to the various State and County Conventions, has served on the Petit and Grand Juries, and is a man of decided views, whose opinions are generally respected, as they are the outgrowth of his honest convictions.

Mamakating, Dwelling 662, Family 718, Lines 32-41, NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 603

Mamakating, Pg 697, Dwelling 859, Family 670, Lines 13-22, NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 866

Mamakating, Sullivan, New York

Mamakating, Sullivan, New York, United States

Head: James Sears - M - 60
Wife: Esther Sears - F - 41
Daughter: Margaret Sears - F - 30
Daughter: Abigail Sears - F - 27
Son: Isaac Sears - M - 20
Son: James Sears - M - 17
Daughter: Mary Sears - F - 12
Son: Alfred Sears - M - 8
Son: Charles Sears - M - 5
Son: William B Sears - M - 2