BIOGRAPHIES:  George Penfield SHEARS, Pepin, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by Nance Sampson, Pepin Co. Archives File Manager on 19 November 2004
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**Posted for informational purposes only - submitter is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

George Penfield Shears (deceased), whose name is familiar to the
traveling public throughout the United States, was born in Sheffield,
Berkshire county, Mass., September 22, 1819, and died at Pepin August
27, 1887.  His grandfather, Jeremiah Shears, fled from Dublin to
America in 1798; his brothers, Henry and John, were executed by the
English government for participating in the Irish rebellion.  Henry
Shears, son of Jeremiah, and nearly all of his descendants are, or
have been, successful hotel-keepers.  He married Miss Maria Brown,
and they were blessed with nine children:  Leonard, Eunice (Mrs. J.
T. Lacy), Henry, George P. (subject of this sketch), Eben B., Ann,
Sarah, Samuel S. and Mary.  In 1821 he moved to Rochester, N. Y.,
then a small village, where he invested largely in real estate, and
kept the "Monroe House."  In 1842 he moved to Watertown, Wis., where
he kept a hotel until his death in 1847.  George P. attended the high
school in Rochester until fifteen years old when he ran away from
home and worked successively on a packet boat (Erie canal) and in
hotels at Niagara Falls and Cleveland, Ohio.  In 1839 he began
clerking in the Clifton house, Niagara Falls.  After clerking eight
years he became proprietor and carried on the house until 1859. 
During his twenty years' connection with this house Mr. Shears made
many hunting excursions in Wisconsin, camping all one winter with the
Indians about Lake Winnebago.  He also made a visit to Pepin about
1850.  Mr. Shears removed from Niagara Falls to Kenosha, Wis., and
thence to Pepin in 1862.  In 1867 he went to Toronto, Canada, and
kept the Rossin house for ten years.  He removed to Oconomowoc, Wis.,
thence to Frontenac, Minn., in 1879, where he carried on the Lakeside
and the Merchants' hotels, in Lake City, for three years.  His health
failing he returned to Pepin, where he lived until his death.

Mr. Shears was married January 10, 1847, to Miss Ann Elizabeth
Blaisdell, who still survives him.  They had eight children, four of
whom are still living:  D. Clifton, Carrie Christine, Jenny Lind
(Mrs. H. B. Shears), Georgia Ann, Marie Theresa (Mrs. T. H. Lage),
Benedict Pierson, Edward Crossman and Penfield.  Mr. Shears was one
of the few persons who was successful as a "host."  Twice during his
life he accumulated comfortable fortunes, but always met with severe
losses whenever he engaged in other business.

-Transcribed from the "Historical & Biographical Album of the
Chippewa Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," page 735.


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