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CAPTAIN HENRY SEARS

information and photograph submitted by Gary Sears
Email: gsears@sprynet.com
PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF Captain Henry SEARS 1840-1920
Henry Sears was born February 22, 1840, in Hopkins County, Kentucky, and went to live in Dade County, Missouri, when his parents moved there in 1854. His father' s name was William Sears and he was a school teacher and shoemaker. His sisters were Susan and Anne.

Susan married a Mr.. Cantrell and two of her children' s names were David and Fannie.

Anne married Jacob Sears (a distant cousin) and her children were: William, Belle (who married Robert Charlton and after his death married a Mr. Locke) and Charles Sears. His brother was Frank Sears who never married. He died in Indian Territory about 1898, and is buried near Cleveland, Oklahoma.

Henry Sears enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861, at the beginning of the War Between the States. He drew his gun and other supplies at Maysville, Arkansas. He served in the Confederate Army four years and rose to the rank of Captain, being on the staff of General Joseph O. Shelby. Some of the engagements in which he saw action were: The Battle of Pea Ridge near Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and The Battle of Wilson Creek, near Springfield, Missouri. He was wounded severely during battle and left by the army as too badly wounded to move, but was taken to safety by one of his comrades (Dick Allan). He was in Company F, 6th Regiment, Missouri Cavalry, Confederate States of America.

Shortly after the close of the war, Captain Sears moved to Texas, but stayed only a year or two and went back to Missouri where his first wife died and he married a second time.

He went to Kansas in 1870 and homesteaded on Duck Creek near Elk City. His second wife died in 1878.

On February 19, 1880 Captain Sears married for the third time, and the family lived in Kansas until early in November, 1894.

The Sears moved to the Indian Territory, settling on Candy Creek in the Osage Nation. The rest of his life was spent in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma.

After statehood Captain and Mrs. Sears,' and some of the married children and their families moved to the hills in east central Oklahoma, where they farmed and were engaged in livestock ranching.

Captain Sears was interested in all community progress and the schools and churches. He was often on the school board in his community and helped to advance the cause of education in Indian Territory and early Oklahoma. He was member of the Baptist faith, having joined the church in Kansas in 1889.

Captain Sears died August 26, 1920, at Strang, Oklahoma and was buried there, later he was removed to Hillside Cemetery and placed beside his wife, Frances Rebecca Johnson Sears.

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