On our recent visit to the Moosehead Lake area of Maine, I located the will of William Sears, father of Emily Sears Templeton, and my wife’s great-great grandfather. The will was executed in 1885, about three years before his death. William left eight of his nine surviving children one dollar each. The tenth child, Melinda, died in 1882. The remainder of his estate he left to son, Charles H Sears in trust for his wife Edith. Charles was also entrusted with the care of the two minor children, Allen and Hiram, until they reached the age of 21. Charles died in 1890, providing some context for his mother’s marriage the following year to William Huff. William died in 1888 and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery, Willimantic, Piscataquis, Maine. His tombstone gives his birth year as 1810, although his census records imply a birthdate in the 1820’s. His census records along with those of many of his children list his birthplace as Maine. However, some of his children’s later census records list his birthplace as Canada English. I have not found any information about him prior to the 1860 census. The most significant fact from this document for our family research is the listing of daughter, Emily Templeton, confirming that this is our Emily’s family and that she had not remarried as of 1885.
