Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Searles, Dewitt Clinton 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 8, 2007, 11:58 pm

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

DEWITT CLINTON SEARLES. The portraits on the opposite pages will be 
immediately recognized as those of a highly respected citizen of Will County 
and his estimable wife. Mr. Searles is well and favorably known throughout 
this county, both in business circles and public life. As an agriculturalist 
of superior intelligence and progressiveness, he has wielded a potent 
influence in placing this county in the front ranks of its sister counties, 
and Troy Township finds in him one of its most enterprising citizens and a 
leader among its farmers and stock-growers. Mr. Searles was born January 30, 
1830, in Summit County, Ohio, and was reared near Columbus. His parents were 
Amos and Hannah (Hulburt) Searles. They had come from Connecticut and were 
early pioneers of that part of Ohio. His mother was a daughter of Isaiah 
Hulburt, a Revolutionary soldier, who enlisted when fourteen years of age, and 
faithfully served throughout the entire war, being under Washington the whole 
seven years. Amos Searles was a descendant of people who came to this country 
early in the seventeenth century and settled on Long Island, where some of the 
family still reside. Our subject passed the early years of his life within 
eighteen miles of Columbus, and when twenty-one years of age left his old home 
to try his fortunes in the Prairie State. He bought a farm about three miles 
from where he now lives, which he disposed of three years later and in 1856 
purchased the one on which he now resides. It was at that time a tract of wild 
prairie and much hard labor was required to bring it to its present high state 
of improvement. He put up a building in which he lived, using a part of it for 
a barn, until the latter part of the summer when he erected a small house. 
This latter was afterward burned, and clearing away large quantities of the 
hazel brush which stood on his land, Mr. Searles erected a more substantial 
residence. He has since put up an excellent set of buildings, erecting his 
present house in 1866, and now has one of the best places in the county, 
consisting of six hundred acres of land in a fine state of cultivation. His 
farm is well stocked with cattle and hogs of the best breed, as he makes a 
specialty of feeding that class of stock. Mr. Searles was married in 1866, to 
Miss Harriet Walker, of Plainfield, Ill., a daughter of Capt. J. Walker, who 
is credited with being the first settler in Will County and who was a soldier 
in the War of 1812, taking part in the battle of New Orleans and in many 
Indian fights. During the Black Hawk War he was Captain of a company and was 
very active in subduing the Indians. In 1828 he came to this county with his 
family from St. Clair County, Ill., and pre-empted for his first claim a part 
of the land on which the village now stands. The mother of Mrs. Searles bore 
the maiden name of Walker, and was the daughter of Jesse Walker, who came here 
as a missionary in 1826. He was from East Tennessee, while the family 
originated in Rockingham, Va. Upon arriving in Illinois in 1804, Jesse Walker, 
who was a minister in the Methodist Church, settled in St. Clair County. 
During this long journey he had been accompanied by his family, who made the 
trip on horseback. He became very well known in the county and State, and was 
a contemporary and associate of Peter Cartwright. Mrs. Capt. Walker, prior to 
her marriage, was a missionary among the Indians. The first frame building 
erected in Chicago was built of lumber sawed at Capt. Walker's mill in 
Plainfield, this county. Possessed of a noble character and fine mental 
endowments, Mr. Searles would have been an honor to any community. A man of 
broad views, keen observation and extensive information, he has a fine library 
well supplied with choice books. In the management of public affairs he has 
taken an important part, and for eight years was Supervisor of the township, 
which is strongly Democratic. He is a stanch Republican, but his well-known 
ability and popularity carried the day. Mr. Searles and his wife have had four 
children, of whom three are living, one having died in infancy. Maud is a 
young lady at home; Linn W. operates the farm, and Edna is a maiden of fifteen 
years. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which they 
are active workers. Socially, their friends are many, for their refinement has 
made them respected wherever known.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890

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