Sears, Benjamin

BENJAMIN SEARS.—This gentleman was rather a remarkable man. Nature had done a good deal for him; and if his natural talents had been cultivated and enlarged by a suitable education, few men in the county would have excelled him in business operations. The reach of his mind was extensive, and he could see the end from the beginning. But his education was very limited, and his memory his account-book. His power of recollection was astonishing; somewhat owing, perhaps, to great cultivation and exercise. Whatever he once knew he never forgot, so deeply was it engraven on his memory.

Mr. Sears, in the early period of his life, had been a constable of the town of Montgomery, then including Crawford. Of the hundreds of executions in his hands during that time, thirty years afterwards he could tell by the force of memory every person he had had one against, and the amount marked by the justice on the back of it in pounds, shillings, and pence. Mr. Sears kept store for many years, and in the fall was in the habit of taking cattle from his customers in payment of their accounts. One hundred head might be delivered to him in this way in the course of a few days, and if they were passed through a pair of bars singly, so as to be distinctly seen, he could tell, the precise age, the person from whom purchased, and the one or more lost, if any, with the color, age, and a minute description of each. We need not be astonished at this, for every faculty, if daily cultivated and depended on as this was, is capable of exhibiting the same wonderful results. Let all appreciate the truth of this remark and be benefited thereby.

Of this family there were five brothers, Benjamin, Samuel, John, James, and Elnathan, all of whom were among the early settlers of Montgomery, and performed military duty during the Revolution. Their descendants are numerous, and found in every calling and pursuit of life.