TOWN OF PLAINFIELD, WISCONSIN 1870 CENSUS Enumerated on the 12th day of July 1870. Searles, Catherine 67 FW Retired New York 04 NOV1897 MR. & MRS. SAMUEL SEARLES, Golden Wedding On Thursday the 27th
inst. MR. & MRS. SAMUEL SEARLES, of Oasis, celebrated their golden wedding
at the home of ther son, ROBERT SEARLES, in the town of Deerfield, where a
reunion of a portion of MR. SEARLES' family was held.....short address by the
REV. SWARTZ, of Plainfield, congratulating MR. & MRS. SEARLES on their having
passed the fiftieth milestone in their married life and that their family of
nine children were all living and a majority of them were present.......MRS.
BARKER, the artist, from Plainfield, was present with her camera and
photographed the group. November 10, 2000 GEORGE WILLIAM SEARLES FAMILY This is kind of a smattering of stuff that I’ve been
collecting over the past little while.
I don’t know if it is of interest to folks, but I guess it’s better to
forward it on than to have it sitting around on my harddrive. Enclosed is a copy of some information on
the George Searles family. It includes
1860 and 1870 census information, and 1858 land patent information for the same. I found this information via Bonnie Price at
the UWSP Archives (she was very helpful!) Anyways, here's some information on George W. Searles that I
received from the University of Wisconsin.
The 1860 census shows that "the Free Inhabitants in Bloomfield in
the county of Waushara, Wisconsin...enumerated by me on the 26 day of July
1860, Edward Saye, Ass't Marshall...: Name Age Sex Profession Value Value Place of Occupation ofReal ofPer. Birth Estate Estate George W. Searl(sic) 41 Male Farmer 300 100 England Elizabeth " 23 Female Ohio Margaret " 8 Female Wisconsin George " 3/12* Male Wisconsin *I assume this means that George was 3 months old. The 1870 census shows "Inhabitants in the town of
Bloomfield in the County of Waushara, Wisconsin...enumerated by me on the 22
day of July 1870, Post Office Brushville(?) F. E. Noyes, Ass't Marshall...: Name Age Sex Profession Value Value Place
of Occupationof Real of
Per. Birth Estate Estate William Searle(sic) 57(?) Male Farmer 8000 425 England Eliza " 31 Female Keeping
House Ohio George " 11 Male Wisconsin Sylvia " 5 Female Wisconsin A few things to note: first, Margaret (who is now about 18
based on the information in the last census) is no longer living in George and
Elizabeth's house. According to the University
of Wisconsin folks, they found no Searles listed in the birth or death indexes,
so I assume that she got married.
Second, the ages seem to be inconsistent. In the last census George was listed as 41, now it appears that
he's 57 (as best as I can make out the handwriting); Elizabeth was 23 and now
is 31; George was 3 months and is now 11 (since this census is 10 years later,
these don't add up). However,
inconsistencies are not uncommon in old records. George and Elizabeth's wealth seems to be growing. The census records (not reflected above)
states that both of George's parents and both of Elizabeth's parents were born
outside of the USA. We knew that for
George, but we didn't know that about Elizabeth. It also reflects that George was born out of the USA and
Elizabeth was born in the USA. Finally,
it reflects that George William was both 21 or over and a citizen of the
USA. In the note from the University, it said that "I
re-checked the 1880 cnsus but did not find the family listed in any form of the
spelling Searl, Searle, Searles. I also
checked birth and death index in all forms of the spelling (and didn't find
anything). A little insight into the the town of Bloomfield in the
County of Waushara, Wisconsin: according the census record, there were six
dwellings housing eight families, there were 21 white males, 19 females of
which 16 of the males were foreign born, 15 of the females were foreign
born. There were no "colored males
or females" and there were no blind folks living in town. Finally, I sent an e-mail note last week to the University
asking them to check to see if George William Searles had naturalized in
Wisconsin. This is the response I got
back today: "Regarding your request for naturalization papers on
George William Searles - I checked the Waushara County naturalization indexes
and found no GeorgeWilliam Searles. I
did find a Jacob Searls and a Samuel (or Saul handwriting is hard to read)
Searls who made their declarations of Intent on Mar. 28, 1870 in Wausahra County. They both were born in Canada. That is the only Searls (spelled various
ways), that I could find. Bonnie Price
UWSP Archives" --- I also found land patent information for George Searles: WISCONSIN HOMESTEAD Patent Description WI1570__.381 Cancelled: N Document
Nr. : 23894 Misc. Document
Nr. : Patentee Name: SEARLES, GEORGE Warrantee Name: Authority: April 24, 1820: Cash Entry Sale (3 Stat. 566) Signature Present: Y Signature Date: 02/22/1858 Metes/Bounds:
N Survey Date: Subsurface
Reserved: N Land Office: MENASHA Comments: Legal Land Descriptions SESW Sec 20 T 20N R 13E Meridian
4th Acreage 0
County Waushara SWSE Sec 20 T 20N R
13E Meridian 4th Acreage
80 County Waushara Source: Land Patent Report; Bureau of Land Management -
Eastern States, General Land Office: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/asp/patinfo.asp?AccessionNumber=WI1570__.381 ----- GEORGE WILLIAM SEARLES FAMILY SUMMARY Thus far, I've been able to track my branch of the SEARLES
family to George William SEARLES who was born in about 1819 - 1826 in Gosport,
Hampshire, England. There he was
married to Julia MCCORMICK. I don't
know when they were married, what happened with this marriage, or who his
parents or sibblings were. However, in
1858, George William ended up on a homestead in West Bloomfield, Waushara
County, Wisconsin with a new wife, Elizabeth Chamberlain. The LDS Family Search database indicates
that Elizabeth Chamberlain was born in 1838 in Ohio and that she and George
William were married in NY City, but there isn't a marriage date or any
documentation given with this information. So, I'm unsure of the
"whens," "wheres" or "hows" of this initial
connection. A check with some government records folks in England shows
that George William SEARLES does not appear in the 1851 census index for
Alverstoke (which includes Gosport).
Therefore, I assume that George William came to the states in the 1840's
or early 1850's The BLM's Records for Wisconsin Homesteads show that on
02/22/1858 George Searles signed on to homestead 80 acres of land in Waushara
County, WI: Legal Land Descriptions SESW Sec 20 T 20N R 13E Meridian
4th Acreage 0
County Waushara SWSE Sec 20 T 20N R 13E Meridian
4th Acreage 80
County Waushara The 1860 and 1870 US Census' show that George William and
Elizabeth lived in lived in West Bloomfield, Waushara County, Wisconsin for
quite a while (note: SEARLES is recorded as SEARL in 1860 census and as SEARLE
in 1870 census). The 1860 census shows
George to be 41 years old (hence born 1819) and Elizabeth to be 23.
It also shows them with two children, Margaret who was 8 and George
(William George, but called George) who was three months old. The 1870 census is a bit more difficult to
read. It seems to show George as 57
(which doesn't add up with his earlier birth date) and Elizabeth as 31 (which doesn't
add up with her earlier birth date). Margaret is not recorded on this second
census (she may have been old enough to get married and moved on but I don't
know what happened to her), George who was 11 and a new child, Sylvia, who was
5. I don't know if they had any
additional children but I suspect that they had at least one other brother. Further searches of the 1880 WI census do not show George
William and Elizabeth to be in Wisconsin.
I have no further information on George, but Elizabeth moved to
Nebraska. She died and was buried at
Norfolk, Madison, Nebraska on 2 Aug 1906. I don't know when they (or possibly
just Elizabeth) moved from Wisconsin to Nebraska. Sylvia SEARLES married Franklin Gilbert Clark, in about 1882,
died and was buried in 6 Oct 1927 at Bassett, Rock, NE. As far as I can tell, they had one child
Adalyne Edith (born 3 Mar 1888 at Creighton, Knox, Nebraska). I don't know anything about Margaret SEARLES
after the 1860 census. My direct family line is through William George SEARLES, who
was my great-grandpa. William George moved to Nebraska and married Elizabeth
Tuson Pearson (or possibly married and then moved). They had a total of eight children. The first two children were born in Nebraska (Charles and
Walter). Then the family moved to
Washington State in about 1885/1886 where they had six more children (Daisy,
Marion, Mildred, George, Sidney and Douglas).
They made a series moves throughout eastern Washington (e.g., Kittitas
Co, near Ellensburg) and western Washington (e.g., near Castle Rock, near
Seattle, and near Bellingham). Their
moves included living on the San Juan Islands, in Washington State, where
Elizabeth taugh school and I believe William George worked in a store. Elizabeth Tuson PEARSON died in there in 1899. After Elizabeth's death, some of the family stayed in
Washington State, but William George and several of his sons moved North and
homesteaded in the Youngstown/Big Stone area, in Special District #3, Alberta,
Canada. I am not sure if his daughters or any siblings moved to Alberta with
him or not. Either just prior to immigrating to Canada, William George
remarried. His second wife's name was
Rita, however, I don't know her maiden name.
Family history says that William George died 21 Apr 1925 and is buried
near Norfolk, Alberta, Canada, but I suspect that it was near Youngstown. I don't know what happened to Rita. During WWI, some of the SEARLES boys joined the Canadian
Expeditionary Forces and Merchant Marines, some of them seeing action in
Europe. I don't know exactly when, but
the boys eventually migrated back south to the US, most to Washington State and
one (my grandpa) to Michigan State.
About 80 decendents were present and accounted for at a family reunion
in Seattle this summer. My grandpa, Sidney SEARLES, was born "on a ranch near
Ellensburg in Kittitas County," Washington on Oct. 4, l894.
He worked as a logger, an assistant to a surveyor and on the family
ranch in Alberta, Canada. When he was
discharged from the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, he joined the American Army
including a stint with the famous "Hat & Ring squadron". He married Evangeline Blanche Wallis (or
Wallace, depending on the records being checked) in about 1921 in Detroit
MI. My grandma Eva's family is from
Ontario, Canada, her father was Edward Wallis (b. 1860 in Manchester, England)
and Lettie Houghtling (b. 1862) at Napanee, Richmond Twp, Lennox &
Addington Co, Ontario, Canada. We have
very scant information on the Houghtling and the Wallis families. When Sidney got out of the service he went to work for and
later retired from the Railroad Express Company at the New York Central Station
in downtown Detroit. Sidney and Eva had
three children, Virginia, Betty and Sidney, and Eva had one child prior to this
marriage, Kingsley STROM (who upon return from WWII legally changed his name to
SEARLES). Eva died in Detroit, Michigan
in November 1968 and Sidney died in Marysville, Washington in November
1971. Kingsley passed away in Mar 1979,
and Sidney just passed away in Feb 2000.
Virginia lives in the Detroit area and Betty (my mom) lives in western
Washington.