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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Portrait and Biographical
History of
Fayette, Pickaway and Madison Counties, Ohio.
Publ. Chicago: Chapman Bros.
1892
CHAUNCEY
EDWARD SEARS. It is not ease, but effort -
not luck, but labor - that develops character.
There is perhaps no position in life in which
difficulties are not to be met and conquered before
success can be attained. As the skillful mariner
gains his best experience amid storms, so on the ocean
of life it is adversity which develops self-reliance,
courage and the highest discipline.
The experiences of many men go to prove the fact that
obstacles in the path of progress may usually be
overcome by perseverance, honest, zeal and energy, and
above all by a determination to succeed in the face of
every obstacle. These elements in the character of
Mr. Sears furnish us with the key to his
success. Among the citizens of Circleville, few attained
the prosperity which rewarded his unconquerable
perseverance, and a brief review of his life will be
both interesting and profitable. Death has closed
his labors on earth, but his character still lives as a
model for others, furnishing an example which posterity
may well
study, admire and imitate.
The Sears family traces its ancestry to England, whence
the great-grandfather of our subject came to America
with two brothers, and settled in Connecticut.
Daniel Sears, grandfather of our subject,
was a native of the Nutmeg State, whence he removed to
Lewis County, N. Y., and settled in Leyden Township,
engaging in lumbering and farming in the section of
country known as the Black River. His death
occurred at Port Leyden, where he was buried. He
came of Quaker ancestry.
The father of our subject, Chauncey Sears, was born in
Connecticut, and was there married to Miss
Emily Hollister, a native of Vermont.
He pursued farming operations in Connecticut, and
removed from that State to Port Leyden, N. Y., residing
there for several years, but finally moving to Columbia
County, N. Y., where he sojourned until his death.
His principal occupation through life was that of
agriculture, and he accumulated a competency. In
politics, he was a Republican, and through life he
adhered to the principles and teachings of the Quakers,
in which faith he was reared.
The youngest son in a family of eight children, three
sons and five daughters, Chauncey Edward Sears
was born in Leyden, Lewis County, N. Y. His
boyhood and early manhood were passed in Lewis and
Columbia Counties, N. Y., where he attended the common
school, worked as a mechanic, and also became familiar
with the duties of farm labor. When twenty-eight
years of age, he went to Livingston County, N. Y., and,
settling near Mt. Morris, engaged in general farming.
He was especially interested in raising broom corn, from
which he manufactured brooms, and also in raising and
drying sweet corn, and superintended various mechanical
enterprises.
In Livingston County Mr. Sears met and
married Miss Annie Smith, M. D., a graduate of
the Woman's Medical College of New York City. In
the spring of 1873, he and his wife removed to
Circleville, and during the same year built a factory
for drying sweet corn, and a few years later erected the
canning establishment which is now the largest and one
of the most successful enterprises of the kind in the
State, and one of the three largest in the United
States. Two engines are in constant use from June
to November, and between three and four hundred employes
are given work. All the modern improvements and
machinery are to be found in this establishment, and
everything is conducted with system and dispatch.
The drying house is 60x150 feet in dimensions; the
packing house is large, two stories in height, and all
the other buildings for storage are commodious and
conveniently arranged. The details of all this
business were superintended by our subject. In
1882, Mr. and Mrs. Sears erected a canning
factory in Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, Mich., which
they have operated since that time.
A man of great energy, promptness and reliability,
whose word was always considered as good as his bond,
Mr. Sears was a splendid addition to
the citizenship of Circleville. he possessed great
versatility of talent, was an able writer and a prompt
and eloquent speaker. He was a public-spirited,
upright citizen, and a humanitarian, using his talents
and means freely for the uplifting of society and
humanity in general. A thorough temperance
advocate, he did much for the advancement of that cause,
and was an active member of the Independent Order of
Good Templars. In politics, he was a stanch
Republican. In religious matters, he was educated
in the Quaker principles, but was no stickler for
creeds, forms or ceremonies, believing firmly in a
practical daily Christian life as
taught and lived by Jesus. He died Feb. 7, 1892,
greatly lamented by the entire community where he
resided.
Mrs. Annie (Smith) Sears, M. D., was born in Van
Buren, Onondaga County, N. Y. Her father was a
native of Greenock, Scotland, and died when
she was an infant; her mother passed away when
forty-four years old. The latter was the fourth
daughter in a family of twelve children, seven daughters
and five sons. Her parents were by name Abram
and Polly Gillitt, and were natives of Vermont.
Mrs. Gillitt was a sister of President
Fillmore's mother. Mrs. Sears
is sole proprietor of the business of C. E. Sears
& Co., manufacturers of canned goods, and is a lady
whose business acumen is well known, and one who is
thoroughly capable of superintending her own affairs.
She is a graduate of medicine, eclectic in principle,
and very successful in practice when she gave her time
thereto.
In later years, it was the choice of Mrs.
Sears and her husband that she should assist in the
business instead of following her profession.
Wide-awake
and enterprising, she has conducted the entire business
successfully since the death of her husband, and is a
woman of independent turn of mind, always
doing her own thinking. All the progressive and
reform movements of the day find in her a faithful
friend, and she is identified with the Western Packers'
Canned Goods Association. She is a member of the
Grand Lodge of Ohio of Good Templars, and at present
serves as Chief Templar of her own district. In
Religion, she was reared in the (Quaker doctrine, but is
no sectarian, believing that Christ's people should all
be one, and that without a daily practical Christian
life, theories and doctrines are of no avail. In
politics, she is a Republican, but believes in the equal
rights and privileges of all men and women as being
God-given.
Source: Portrait and Biographical
History of Fayette, Pickaway and Madison Counties,
Ohio. Publ. Chicago: Chapman Bros. - 1892 - Page 119 |
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