Schley COUNTY, GA - Bios Dr. William J. Sears Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Harris Hill http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002514 Martha Rainey and Catherine Sears Towers Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm The Migration of the Family of Dr. William J. Sears Contributed by Harris Hill, Martha Rainey and Catherine Sears Towers This migration story revolves around the family of Dr. William Joseph Sears and their migration from West Central Georgia to what was then probably the last frontier in the east, Florida, specifically, Osceola County, FL. Dr. W.J. Sears was born January 30, 1833, in Talbot County, Georgia, to William and Martha "Patsy" Finney Lockhart Sears. Although we can't be certain, there is some evidence to suggest that the senior Wm. Sears may have been a doctor. His will, recorded September 5, 1848, would also suggest that he was a man of some substance. He owned considerable land when he died in 1848. At his father’s death, Wm. Joseph was but 15. His mother died 5 years later in 1853. William Joseph Sears became a physician at a rather young age. Great grandaughter Catherine Sears Towers has cards, dating from the mid-1850's, indicating that he attended Southern Botanico Medical College, established August 15, 1840 in Monroe County, Ga., and the Metropolitan Medical College of New York. The Botanico Medical movement's philosphy embraced the belief that ills should be treated with medicinal concoctions obtained solely from plant life, namely herbs, rather than the vegetable/mineral concoctions common at that time. Dr. Pemberton, inventor of Coca-Cola, is probably the most recognized graduate of this school. On October 22, 1853 he married Louisiana "Lou" Lockhart in neighboring Taylor County. Their first child, Wm. David Sears was born in Howard, Taylor County, Georgia, on December 8, 1856. Shortly after Wm. David’s birth the family moved to Pond Town, later to become Ellaville, the county seat of brand new Schley County, Georgia. Schley County was created by act of the Georgia legislature in 1857, from portions of Marion and Sumter Counties. Pond Town, approximately where the Ellavile cemetery is today, was moved slightly north and named Ellaville in honor of the daughter of Robert Burton who sold the land to the county. At this time Ellaville was on a Indian trail and was a stage coach stop on the route from middle Georgia to Tallahassee, FL. Dr. William J. Sears set up his practice in Ellaville and also opened the first drug/general merchandise store in the new town. He also built his first home here. He was a founder and deacon of the Missionary Baptist Church and one of the original members of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias. His family began to grow along with Ellaville. The 1860 Schley County census shows William, age 27, Lou, age 24, and the children William D(avid), 3, and Robert J(oseph), 9 mos. On May 4, 1861, Dr. Wm. J. Sears enlisted as a private in Co. G, 5th Ga. Vol. Infantry and within two weeks was enroute to Pensacola, Co. G’s first duty station, and a short-term hotspot. He was here for quite some time. They saw little action and if the truth were known, there were long stretches of boredom. The letters of Charles Womack, also in Co. G, would tend to reinforce this (see http://www.rootsweb.com/~gaschley/g5th.htm ). Capt. Robert Burton resigned while the company was in Pensacola and Dr. W.J. Sears was elected the company’s next commander on December 11, 1861. One of the early Charles Womack letters indicates that there was considerable dissatisfaction, within the ranks, with Capt. Burton and his second in command Lt. Charles B. Hudson. This no doubt played a part in Burton’s resignation and Lt. Hudson’s subsequent assignment to hospital duty. The boredom of Pensacola was to change, for Co. G was about to move. The remainder of the war was to make up for the long period of inaction. In April, 1862, they left Pensacola for Mississippi where they participated in the Corinth campaign (April-June 1862). The rest of the war was as follows for Co. G, Murfreesboro (Dec. 31, 1862), Tullohoma campaign (Jun-Aug. 1863), Chickamauga (Sept. 19-20, 1863), Chattanooga (Sept.-Nov. 1863), Atlanta/Kennesaw Mt. (May- Sept. 1864), Savannah (Nov. –Dec. 1864), Carolinas campaign (Feb.-April 1865) and Bentonville (Mar. 19-21, 1865). Capt. Sears, according to his widow’s pension application, in testimony provided by two of his fellow soldiers (Thomas J. Hixon and Wm. Allen) was transferred in 1865 as an army surgeon. In the southern forces at this time there was a desparate need for trained medical personel. Wm. J. Sears’ widow’s claim for pension makes for interesting reading and may be viewed online at ttp://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/barm/pensionfiles.html Among the pioneer Osecola County, FL names mentioned within the application are Carson, Donegan, Bass, Johnston, Bronson and Godwin. Dr. Wm. J. Sears had two sons born during the period of the war. Edward L. Sears was born in 1862, and John Whitney Sears was born in 1864. His wife Lou died of consumption (tuberculosis) on Christmas Day, December 25, 1871 in Americus, Ga. Wm. J. Sears finds himself a single father of four boys, the oldest of which is 15. After Lou’s death, the family moved to Smithville, Lee Co. Georgia, a short distance south of Americus. Dr. Sears practiced medicine there and in Americus. Here he met and married Mary Frances Fletcher Green (b. 6 Feb. 1835) on July 10, 1872 in Americus. She was an aunt to Duncan Upshaw Fletcher, U.S. Senator from Florida (Jacksonville) from 1909 tom 1915. Dr. Wm J. and Mary Frances had a son William Joseph, who was born December 4, 1874 at Smithville. About this time, William David decides to pursue a career as a physician and enrolls in the Atlanta Medical College (later to become the Emory Univ. School of Medicine). The 1880 census finds them all back in Ellaville and young Wm. David has begun his practice there. In January of 1881, the Sears family minus Wm. David makes a big move. They move to Kissimmee City, then Orange County, Florida. The possible reasons are numerous and one can only speculate as to the cause for the move, but this was the beginning of an exciting time in this part of Florida. Kissimmee, formerly Allentown, was the headquarters for Philadelphia entrepreneur Hamilton Disston. Disston had made a deal with the state to drain the swamps, thus creating many acres of rich farm land. Kissimmee began to grow at a rapid rate. The obituary of Dr. W.J. Sear's son Robert states "his family traded the family buggy for forty acres of land where they built a two story general store and engaged in the merchantile business, serving both white settlers and Indians, and since his father was a doctor, the store became Kissimmee's first drug store." In deed book E, pages 337-9 (1885), of the Osceola County records, W.J. Sears is identified as the surviving partner of the firm of White and Sears, doing business in Kissimmee, Orange Co., FL. Osceola was not split away from Orange and Brevard counties until May of 1887. In Myrtle Hilliard Crow's "Old Tails and Trails of Florida," she states, "W.G. White, the owner of the general merchandise store at Lake Jessup, where the pioneers did much of their trading, later owned a store in Orlando and was a partner in the firm of White and Sears in Kissimmee. This general merchandise store was purchased by M. Katz and Carroll Makinson." Makinson Hardware still operates today, in downtown Kissimmee. Mary Willson Aultman in a letter to the editor of the Kissimmee Gazette, in October of 1931, a few weeks before her death reminisces about Kissimmee as she found it upon her arrival there in 1883. This is what she has to say about our Sears family. "Across from the side of that on Main street facing east, was the drug store and home of that fine old pioneer Dr. J.W.(W.J.) Sears, father of our Congressman, Joe Sears, and an old friend of my husband's in Georgia, who had first interested him in Kissimmee. This store, with the name "Sears & White," on the site of the F.C. Bryan brick building was sold to M. Katz and Carroll Makinson of Baltimore and Harve de Grace, Md., and developed by them into a fine hardware and mercantile establishment." This would have located the home and business at the NW corner of the intersection of Park and Main. As in Ellaville, Dr. Sears sought to establish a Baptist church. Again from Myrtle Hilliard Crow's book, "Dr. W.J. Sears, dry goods merchant and practicing physician, who was a pious Christian gentleman, yearned for a Baptist Church in Kissimmee." He was amongst those instrumental in founding the Baptist church and bringing Rev. Thomas J. Bell from Tazewell, Ga.(just a few short miles from Dr. Sears' prior home in Ellaville) to Kissimmee to be it's first pastor. With the formation of Osceola County in 1887, Dr. W.J. Sears was appointed as the first Superintendent of Public Instruction. He later served several years as Chairman of the Board of Public Instruction. In 1889, he passed the Florida Board of Eclectic Medical Examiners. He shortly became Chairman of the State Board of Eclectic Medical Examiners. Records indicate that Dr. Sears maintained his practice and a drug/general merchandise store in Kissimmee until his death on Monday evening, March 26, 1900. On the day of his funeral, then Mayor Carson, ordered all Kissimmee businesses closed from 9 a.m. til noon in honor of the funeral. He is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Kissimmee very near the entrance in the shade of a large live oak tree. There are reports that his grave was marked with a C.S.A. veteran’s marker as late as the mid 1980's, but upon my visit in May of 2003, there was no marker of any kind. A request for a C.S.A. marker has been made from the Veterans Administration. Son, William David Sears married Emma Delula Battle, the daughter of Judge Cullen Lazarus Battle and Mary Elizabeth Countryman on April 2, 1882. They had four children: Bessie Lou, Joseph Cullen, Imogene and Fannie Ruth (who, at this writing is still living at the age of 105) and the marriage spanned nearly sixty-three years. He carried on the family tradition in Ellaville, practicing medicine and running the drug store for over fifty years. He was devoted to the Baptist church his father helped found and spent much of his time helping it to grow. He died at his home in Ellaville, March 15, 1945. He is buried in Ellaville Cemetery. More is available on the remarkable life of this man at http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/schley/obits/sears .txt On October 2, 1883, son Robert J. married Ella Aderhold, daughter of Col. Jacob Wilson Aderhold and Jane Aderhold. Mary Aultman described the Col. in her letter referenced above as "that splendid Southern gentleman and former officer of the Confederacy. He was not the first mayor of Kissimmee but was elected soon after my arrival, so he may have been the second." Col. Aderhold was indeed a Colonel at war's end but enlisted initially in Co. A, 1st Ga. Vol. Inf., aka, 36th Ga. Inf., with the rank of Capt. The 1880 census finds him in Macon, Bibb Co., Ga. There is much information about Col. Aderhold to be found in his widow's pension claim including some letters from early citizens of Brevard County, FL. It may be viewed at: http://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/barm/pensionfiles.html The 1887 Kissimmee city directory shows Robert J. Sears as a porter for E.O. Morgan (mgr. Of the Lake House, a fashionable inn of Kissimmee) and a deputy sheriff. He was boarding at the Lake House. During his lifetime he was a saw mill operator and builder. His obit indicates he lived in Kissimmee, Loughman, Sanford, Tampa, and Fort Pierce before settling down in Lake Wales in 1923. He is mentioned in a newspaper report about his father’s illness, on March 16, 1900, as living in Loughman, FL (south of Kissimmee). Robert had a daughter according to the Lynward Lightner history and a son Joe, who died in Jacksonville Beach, FL, July 6, 1956. Joe was 70. He is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, Kissimmee. A January 18, 1907 piece in the Kissimmee Valley Gazette reports that, "Mr. R.J. Sears of Wildwood (FL), who accompanied the remains of his wife here for interment, returned home Wednesday." Ella is buried in the Alderhold plot at Rose Hill Cemetery. Robert J. Sears died in Lake Wales, FL, in late October, 1953. He was 94 years old. He is buried in the Aderhold family plot in Rose Hill Cemetery with wife Ella and son Joe. Robert's obit in the Kissimmee Gazette indicates that he had a step-daughter, a Mrs. T.O. Lewis of Lake Wales. On June 20, 1884, E.L.(believed to be Edward L.) Sears received a land patent of 40 acres in Orange Co., FL. The patent may be viewed at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/Default.asp? Edward is next found in Pennsylvania on the 1900 census in Belle Vernon, Westmoreland Co. He was married to Ella Jane Jones in about 1892. The census indicates they had no children. A Sears family history done by William David Sears’ grandson, Lynward Lightner, in 1985, states that Edward had a daughter named Verdie. To date, I have been unable to document that. Newspaper accounts have him visiting his brother William David in Ellaville in 1904, and his obituary states that he lived most of his life in Pennsylvania as a merchant and banker. It also indicates he spent his winters in Florida (perhaps in Orange Co). He died at the home of his niece, Mrs. B.T. Rainey (William David’s daughter, Imogene Sears) on July 10, 1941. He was buried in Pennsylvania. Son, John Whitney Sears married Mary Lula Wagnon in Houston Co., Ga., on Aug. 29, 1886. It would seem that he did come to Florida shortly after his marriage. He is listed in the 1887 Kissimmee city directory as a clerk for Waters & Carson. It states he resided on Bass at the SE corner of Mitchell. Waters & Carson was a prominent retail merchant of the time. They carried mostly groceries, but also had such things as shoes, fertilizers, etc. C.A. Carson was one of the principles and he was also a witness to Dr. W.J. Sears’ will and provided a statement in support of Mary Sears’ widows pension claim. He was from the Carson family of Reynolds, Taylor Co., Ga., but that is a whole other migration story. John W. was in Florida at least until 1891. He is shown on the 1920 census in Fulton Co., Ga., with a 29 year old, FL born daughter. Through a combination of statements made in the Sears family history and the 1920 and 1930 census, we believe he had 7 children and lived the remainder of his life in the Atlanta area working as a baggage master for the railroad. John died October 26, 1927 in Fulton Co., Georgia, burial unknown. Dr. William J. Sears’ youngest son, William Joseph "Joe," played a significant part in the early years of Osceola county as well as the state of Florida. He attended the public schools of Osceola county and upon completion went on to Florida State College at Lake City, graduating in 1895. He studied law at Mercer University at Macon, Ga. and the Univ. of FL at Gainesville. He was admitted to practice law in GA and FL courts and the Supreme Court of Florida in 1905, and the Supreme Court of the U.S. in 1912. For 8 years he was the attorney for the Board of County Commissioners for Osecola county. He was the mayor of Kissimmee in 1899, editor of The Osceola Signal 1902-1903, member of the Kissimmee city council from 1907-1911, Osceola county superintendent of public instruction from 1905-1915. During his administration as Mayor of Kissimmee, he was instrumental in bringing Kissimmee into the modern era. He convinced the city council to raise $3500.00 to build Kissimmee's first electric generating plant. He was Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias for the State of Florida in 1913. He was elected as U.S. Congressman for the Fourth Congressional District of Florida seven consecutive terms from 1915 to 1929. He was unsuccessful in obtaining the Democratic nomination in 1929 and returned to Kissimmee and resumed his law practice, eventually moving to Jacksonville where he was elected in 1933 for two additional terms in Congress as an at large representative. He was a member of the U.S. Tariff Commission (1936) and in 1937, he became an Associate Member of the Board of Veteran’s Appeals of the Veteran’s Administration in Washington, retiring due to poor health in 1942. Throughout his career he was affectionally known as "Uncle Joe" to vitually everyone. He died in Kissimmee, March 30, 1944, and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery next to his father. He was married in 1901 to Miss Daisy Watson, daughter of J.W. and Janette McCubbin Watson of Raleigh, N.C. Daisy’s brother was John William Watson, Kissimmee and Miami businessman, Mayor of Kissimmee and Miami, 10 term Representative in the Florida Legislature for Osecola and Dade counties and Chairman of the Osecola county commission for 4 years. Joe and Daisy had two children, Margaret Watson Sears born March 11, 1902 and Wm. Joseph Jr., November 27, 1903. Margaret died March 31, 1910 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery. Joe became a lawyer and practiced in Kissimmee and Jacksonville with his father. They travelled all over Florida for elections. He married Catherine Witschen June 27, 1935, now age 92. They had two children: William Joseph (deceased) and Catherine, one of the contributors of this piece. We welcome additional information on any of the individuals mentioned. I can assure you that considerable restraint was exercised in the writing of this piece as there was was much, much more detailed information available but in certain areas there is a definite deficit. The more I look into the lineage of Kissimmee and Osceola County's early settlers, the more connections I find to West Central Georgia. It seems that many of those pioneers came from Kentucky and Western Georgia. It causes one to wonder if there might have been concentrated marketing efforts on the part of the Disston Land companies in these areas. I will probably never know. Whatever the reason, it seems that many of the pioneers of Osceola county knew each other before their arrival there. There are more migrations stories here. We welcome yours. Source material: (in no particular order) U.S. Census, Roster of Co. G, 5th Ga.,The Sears Family History as compiled by Lynward Lightner (1985), Martha Rainey (great great granddaughter of Dr. William David Sears), Catherine Sears Towers (granddaughter of Congressman Joe Sears), Osceola County Courthouse, "The River of the Long Water," by Alma Hetherington, "Flashbacks, The Story of Central Florida's Past," by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews of The Orlando Sentinel, The Osceola County Historical Society, "Old Tails and Trails of Florida," by Myrtle Hillard Crow, "Osceola County, The First 100 Years," by Aldus M. and Robert M. Cody, The Kissimmee Valley Gazette, The St. Cloud News, The Schley County News, The Ellaville Sun, Confederate Soldier Pension and/or Widow's Claim applications of Dr. W.J. Sears and Col. Jacob Wilson Aderhold, the "History of Marion County, Georgia," by Nettie Powell, "Florida: Past, Present and Future" by George M. Chapin, Schley County WebPage, Georgia GenWeb ( http://www.rootsweb.com/~gaschley/index.htm ), The City of Kissimmee, Parks and Recreation Department (Rose Hill Cemetery), and the Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949.