Biographical Life Story of John Sears
Source:
"JOHN SEARS", was found in privately published history of Henry Herriman Hintze distributed in July 2005 at a Henry Hintze family reunion held in Copperton, Utah, which history was extracted from histories written by Drucilla Sears Howard and Heber J. Sears.
John Sears, eldest of six children, son of Joseph Sears and Elizabeth Cutler, was born at Southill Parish [map], Bedfordshire [GENUKI information], England, October 13, 1822. When three years old his parents moved to Shefford [map] where he resided with them until the year 1842 when he married Sarah Wagstaff and went to live at Caldecote [current map; Caldecote was a hamlet in Northill until 1928], the home of the bride.
The house had a thatched roof and faced the west. They occupied the south end and here the first eight children were born excepting Septimus W. who was born at his grandmothers during a temporary visit of his mother to the old house. Their part of the house consisted of three rooms, one upstairs and two down. In the south room, the largest, John taught school, for he enjoyed the distinction of being the best educated man in the family and perhaps in the neighborhood. The school was conducted in the evening, after the toil of the day in the field, where his time was occupied in farming.
His brother told Heber J. (John's son) how clever John was and how marvelously he could write shorthand; that he gained the great speed of 60 to 70 words a minute; that he was a great reader and at times met clergymen in debates. David told of how John once held a four hour debate with a minister and still had much argument left over. Stories are plentiful of the pranks he used to play on his companions, also of feats of great strength and endurance.
It is said that when John set the pace in reaping, mowing, or any kind of farm work, the others with him had no time for talk but would be hard pressed to keep up with him. In those days all grain was cut with a scythe or cradle.
At the home where seven of the first eight children were born, the first one was name Septimus after a noted preacher, Septimus Sears, and in the wall of the church at Clifton [map] today may be seen a large bronze tablet on which his virtues are inscribed.
While living in Upper Caldecote [map], the family struggled against adversity, so common in those days and in that country. As soon as the children were able to work at anything whatever they had to do so to keep the family pot boiling.
The children were all taught to plat or braid straws for making hats and this was their occupation until they were old enough to do heavier work. The mother and children would work at this all day and often until late at night, and the mother would make the hats to be sold.
In the year 1849, the whole family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and here began a new epoch in their history. One June 3, 1864, John Sears with his wife and four children [note: their son, Isaac had traveled to America a year earlier by himself at the age of 17), Nathan, Maria Ann, Heber J. and Anna left England in a sailing vessel called the Hudson. The captains vance was Israel Pratt. It took them six weeks and six days to cross the Atlantic.
There were about eleven hundred passenger on the boat; one thousand of them being Mormon emigrants. Needless to say that in the intimate companionship companionship formed on this long sea voyage between people of the same religious faith and with a common purpose, friendships were established which lasted throughout life. They danced, sang, played and held divine service on ship board. The ship pulled into the New York harbor on July 20, 1864.
In the evening of July 21, they boarded a magnificent steamer, the first steamboat they had ever seen, and sailed up the Hudson River, arriving at Albany, New York the next morning. At Albany they took the train for Buffalo, the trip being made in cattle cars. They reached Chicago on July 24, and as at that time no trains left Chicago on Sunday, they stayed here until the next morning when they took the train for Quincy, Illinois. As there were no hotel accommodations they were compelled to stand up all night in a shed at the railway station. From Quincy they took the train for St. Joseph, Missouri. This was also a train of cattle cars with no seats and with manure in some places a foot deep, the cinders from the engine poured in on them and one car took fire. The passengers all escaped but the car was burned up.
The train was in three sections and some accident befell each section. Two sections rolled down an embankment but no one was hurt. A railroad man said it didn't matter much if some of them were killed as they were only Mormons. This was during the Civil War and travel was dangerous on account of many bridges having been burned by the soldiers.
At St. Joseph, Missouri, they were permitted to go on a steamer on Aug. 1, up the river to Florence. Here they camped and made ready to cross the plains by ox teams. This journey began on August 12. [note: The Mormon Trails Association shows this journey starting on August 9th, which left from Wyoming, Nebraska.)
The captain of their company was a William Hyde from Hyde Park, Cache Valley, Utah. John Sears drove one of the ox teams, but his wife and children were in another wagon driven by Daniel Wolstenholme. The wagon was loaded with eight passengers besides the teamster in the bows. In this wagon besides Sarah Sears and her children were three other women. One of the women was Mary Lowe who afterwards married Thomas Howard and lived and died in Bountiful. There were about thirty-five wagons in the train. Some 40 or 50 of the emigrants died on the way, owing to change of food, cholera and hardships. The Indians were very hostile that year. Eleven men were killed by them in a company of freighters just ahead of this immigrant train; but this company were not disturbed by the Indians. They had plenty of provisions and though buffalo were scarce antelope were plentiful.
One of their children, Heber J. was sick all the way. He had measles when on the ship and did not fully recover. As they journeyed westward across the plain, he grew gradually worse and on the day he was three years old his parents expected to bury him on the plain. However, he survived and lived to a greater age than any of his brothers or sisters.
They arrived in Salt Lake City, October 26, 1864, making their journey across the plains in fifteen weeks and one day. After being entertained for a few weeks by the wife's brother William Wagstaff, who lived just opposite west of what is now the City and County Building. The family moved to Morgan, Utah but the winter was so severe, that they left there and moved to Kaysville where they found a friend in one Charles Layton who divided his one room house by a partition and made them as comfortable as he could and for a year permitted them to farm part of his land on shares.
The following Fall they rented a farm belonging to Mr. Horton Haight and stayed there for two years. Although the grasshoppers were a great pest, these years were prosperous ones. The building of a railway down Weber Canyon created a demand for farm products and the financial conditions of the family was much improved. Live stock accumulated, crops were good and wild game plantiful.
At the end of two years they were persuaded to move to Pleasant Grove, to which place they went in October of 1868.
Here their last son, John Joseph was born. This move was unfortunate as the land was poor and the returns small. At the end of one year they decided to move to Salt Lake City and for a year or two they did a little farming on the bench south east of the city. In the year 1871 John began to work for Zion's co-operative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI). For a number of years he was manager of the produce department and stayed at the institution until 1888 when he resigned and retired from active business. During all this time the family lived in the 11th Ecclesiastical Ward and most of the time at that is now known as 746 East 2 South [map]. In 1888 John Sears made a two month's visit to England to visit the bounts of his boyhood and to gather the family genealogy.
In the year 1890 Salt Lake City had a real estate boom and the old home on 2nd South was sold for a good price. With part of the proceeds they built a little home in the southern suburb on 5th East just below 17th South [area map], and here they spent the remainder of their days.
John Sears was a man of sterling integrity, one who rose from obscurity to a sphere of usefulness, from an illiterate youth to a well-read man, from poverty to comfort. He rose far above any of his brothers of sisters in material, intellectual, and spiritual attainment. He was a worthy citizen and a good neighbor and a devout Latter-day Saint. It is certain that the faith he espoused in his native land fired him with enthusiasm, gave purpose to his life, and brought him to the land of opportunity.
