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OBITUARY. Stanv—Near Bradford, Monday, October 2,1882, . W. Searl, aged sixty-nine years and five months, Mr. Searl, whose death it in oar and task to chronicle was one of Stark county's earliest set tlers and most exteemed Citizen, he was born in Luzern county, Pennsylvania, in 1813. is father dyrng when he was quite a child, he worked for his even living at the age of ten, consequently his early advantages may be considered limited. In 1937 he married Charlotte Ferris of his na tive county, and in 1839, with his wife and young babe, he came west, working his passage down the Ohio and up the Missouri and Minors rivers as far as Peoria, where he landed with but Arty cents to start in life with here. We first settled in Wethersfield, Henry couunty, where he remained two years; and from there he moved to what is now Osceola township in this county, where he has ever since resided. Here he first worked at the carpenter trade, and in those days he was considered a capital workman, and nearly all the old frame buildings in this part of the county biatit at that time were the work of his hands. He made and furnished coffina and assiated at fu nerals for all those old settlers for miles and miles around him. Though constantly at work and hopeful for the future, he often passed through times that try men’s souls. Sickness in his family and consequent expenses, more than once swept away his hard earnings of years, yet he was not discouraged, but by earnest industry earned himself at last a home. As to his strict integrity, no more need be said than that he had been chosen town school treasurer for Osceola, which office he held every year but one since the township was organized until he resigned three years ago. He had been justice of the peace for overwenty years, and whether it ig a proof of his wish to be right or well balanced judgiment or not, it in a fact worthy of mention, that of all ‘Cases tried before him, of those appealed to court, to only one was his decision reversed. His private character won for him not only the respect but the affection of his most intimate ac quaintances. Obliging as a neighbor, kind and loving as a husband and father, there are few men who have been more often tried and found true than he; and Wheeler Sears, as he was long and familiarly known, will be long remembered. He bore his last illness with patient resigna tion. His funeral at the Baptist church was at tended by a great crowd of mourning friends. He now seep a hia last sleep beside her who went be fore him four years ago to welcome him to That home not made with hands—eternally in the heavens. ’
Newspaper Details
Wyoming Post
Wyoming, Illinois, US
Thu, Oct 12, 1882
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Jessica T.
USA 02 Jun 2026
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