Alden Sears

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1738, Harwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts

Notes:

Revolutionary War: Private in Capt. Elijah Walker's company, Col. John Hathaway's regiment which marched to the Tiverton Alarm in 1780.

From The Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) (citation details below):

Alden Sears, " yeoman," of Rochester, resided for a time in Nova Scotia, and was one of the grantees of the town of Liverpool in 1761.

His wife dying, he returned to the States, living for a time in Pawtucket and Providence, engaged in boat-building and distilling.

He had been previously a seaman, and is said to have commanded a whaling vessel before he was of age.

Marrying again, he settled in Dighton, Mass., on the old Walker homestead, which, on the death of her father, fell to his wife. The old house is still standing, near 200 years old, and is a good specimen of early colonial times.

About the commencement of the Revolutionary War he resumed his voyages, and in returning from the West Indies with a cargo of molasses was captured by the British, lost his vessel and cargo, and was held prisoner several years.

An English officer, with whom he made friends, finally procured his release and supplied him with funds for his return. His wife is said to have had full faith during all the years of his absence that he would return, although others had given him up as dead.

According to the superstitions of the times, there were many signs convincing to her that he would return.

One evening in turning her tea-cup, the peculiar position of the leaves was proof that he was then on his way home.

She rose hastily, saying: "Alden will be home to-night, and I must put the house in order, and dress and go to meet him."

Upon opening the door, she really saw him in the distance approaching the house.

They removed to Bristol, N. Y., in 1792, with others from the vicinity of Dighton. For his land he paid six cents an acre.

He was in Capt. Elijah Walker's Co., in Col. John Hathaway's Regiment, and marched on "ye alarm of Aug. 2, 1780, to Tiverton, 18 miles' travel, 7 days' service, wages £1 8 0. Tiverton, 18 miles' travel, 7 days' service, wages £1 8 0."

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Note on the above: Alden Sears married his second wife, Phebe Walker, the one in the anecdote above, in Dighton, Massachusetts, 29 December 1769. So his first wife, Hannah Bassett, who died in Nova Scotia on an unknown date, has to have died before then. Therefore what he returned to can't have been "the States" as claimed above. No entity called "the States", United States or otherwise, existed in eastern North America in or before 1769.

When Alden Sears went from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia and then back to Massachusetts, he no more thought of himself as visiting a foreign land than he would have thought that way of relocating to Connecticut. He probably would have considered Quebec a foreign place, because although it was by then ruled from London it was dominated by French speakers. But Nova Scotia was just another English colony in which most of the inhabitants spoke English.

Alden married Phoebe Walker on 29 Dec 1769 in Dighton, Bristol, Massachusetts. Phoebe (daughter of Elnathan Walker and Bethiah Tisdale) was born in 1748 in Dighton, Bristol, Massachusetts; died on 23 Oct 1830 in Bristol, Ontario, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Eleanor married Richmond Simmons on 22 Dec 1799 in Bristol, Ontario, New York. Richmond (son of Rev. David Simmons and Lillis Richmond) was born on 1 May 1773 in Massachusetts; died on 26 Jan 1845 in Bristol, Ontario, New York; was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Bristol Center, Ontario, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 11 Jun 1806, Bristol, Ontario, New York
• Alternate death: 11 Feb 1862, Bristol, Ontario, New York

Richmond married Hannah R. Wheeler in 1827. Hannah (daughter of Benjamin Daggett Wheeler and Deborah Reed) was born on 17 Nov 1810; died on 17 May 1908 in Bristol, Ontario, New York; was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Bristol Center, Ontario, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Caroline married David Freeman Crandall on 9 Nov 1845 in Bloomfield, Ontario, New York. David (son of John Crandall and Phebe Freeman) was born on 15 May 1827 in Ontario County, New York; died on 20 Jun 1873 in Howell, Livingston, Michigan; was buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Howell, Livingston, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Annette married Elisha Freeman Allen on 26 Dec 1869 in Howell, Livingston, Michigan. Elisha (son of Henry Freeman Allen and Angeline) was born on 14 Mar 1844 in Schuyler County, New York; died on 22 Jul 1918 in Lansing, Ingham, Michigan; was buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Howell, Livingston, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elbert married Marion Van Wort on 2 Jul 1892 in Howell, Livingston, Michigan. Marion (daughter of George Seward Van Wort and Hattie C. Crowell) was born on 11 Jan 1873 in Mount Morris, Genesee, Michigan; died on 17 Nov 1948 in Williamston, Ingham, Michigan; was buried in Summit Cemetery, Williamston, Ingham, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also spelled Roselia, Rosalie, Rosella, Rosslie, etc.

We do not know her exact date or place of birth. The record of her 1924 marriage to John Q. Myers says that she was born in in Howell, Michigan and that she was 19, implying a birth year around 1905. The record of her 1945 marriage to John B. Squier says that she was born in Lansing, Michigan and that she was 39, implying a birth year around 1906. Both marriage records confirm that she was a daughter of Elbert Freeman Allen and Marion Van Wort, and the 1910 and 1920 census records of that couple list a daughter of the appropriate age named Rosalia or Roselia. Elbert Freeman Allen was born in Howell in 1873 and married Marion Van Wort there in 1892. Finally, Rose M. Squier's 9 Apr 1985 obituary in the Battle Creek Enquirer, says that she was born in Lansing and gives her age at death as 79, implying a birth year of 1905. This obituary correctly identifies its subject as the mother of "Barbara Fitzgerald of Dayton" and, while it makes no mention of her first husband, it also correctly says "Her husband, John B. Squier, died in 1963."

She is a subject of extreme confusion in various user-submitted trees on ancestry.com and listings on Find a Grave. Her second husband was not John McGowen Squires (1903-1972), a son of Albert E. Squires and Ruth May McGowen. Nor was he Walter R. Squires (1892-1973), a son of William Rosecrans Squires and Laura Belle Myers. Walter R. Squires did marry, on 14 Feb 1931 in Mason, Ingham County, Michigan, a woman named Rose M., but she was Miss Rose M. Erbe, 25 years old, born in Mantador, North Dakota, a daughter of Albert Erbe. Walter R. Squires died in Lansing on 9 Feb 1973 and, acccording to his 11 Feb 1973 obituary in the Lansing State Journal, was survived by his wife Rose. Walter and Rose are interred together at Resurrection Cemetery in Wyoming, Kent County, Michigan, under a plaque that gives his birth and death dates as 26 Nov 1892 and 9 Feb 1973, and hers as 20 May 1905 and 11 Mar 2005. She is beyond any possible doubt not the Rosalia M. (Allen) (Myers) Squier who was a daughter of Elbert Freeman Allen and Marion Von Wort and the mother of Barbara Ann (Myers) Fitzgerald.

Out of the dozens of user-submitted ancestry.com trees in which she appears, several of the less obviously confused give our Rosalia's birth as 8 Oct 1905 in Howell. None of them give a source for this precise date or place, but a birth in October 1905 is exactly consonant with the ages given in both of her marriage records, and with the age (79) given in the Battle Creek Enquirer's report of her death on 4 Apr 1985. Further, her father was born in Howell, her parents were married in Howell, and Howell is the birthplace given on the earlier of her two marriage records, all of which facts suggest that Howell, rather than Lansing, was her actual place of birth. But failing a truly stunning coincidence, she was not born there on 20 May 1905, because we know this to have been the birthdate of Rose M. Erbe, wife of Walter M. Squires.

Rosalia married John Q. Myers on 12 Dec 1924 in Lansing, Ingham, Michigan, and was divorced on 11 Sep 1944 in Calhoun County, Michigan. John (son of John Walter Myers and Electa Frances Eisenlohr) was born on 6 Feb 1895 in Carson City, Montcalm, Michigan; died on 6 Nov 1965 in Marengo Township, Calhoun, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Rosalia married John B. Squier on 2 Jul 1945 in Battle Creek, Calhoun, Michigan. John (son of Charles Albert Squier and Julia Elizabeth Hickman) was born about 1903; died in 1963. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Barbara married Daniel Squier Fitzgerald on 14 Feb 1947 in Battle Creek, Calhoun, Michigan. Daniel (son of Waldo Everett Fitzgerald and Dorothy M. Squier) was born on 23 May 1923 in Battle Creek, Calhoun, Michigan; died on 27 Aug 2011 in Battle Creek, Calhoun, Michigan; was buried in Fort Custer National Cemetery, Augusta, Kalamazoo, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]