The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-02-03
HEIR TO NINE MILLIONS.
The Grandson Of an Honest Cape Cod
Fisherman-The Son of Confirmed
BasheIer who Married at the Ripe Age
Of Si1ty-tNvO.
[Fron the y. Y. Sun. j

The Grandson OF an Honest cape W
Fisherman-The Son of COnflrme'
BasheIer who Married at the Ripe Az
OF Si1ty-tSvO.
From the " Y. Sun
Boston, January 21.-It is a recog
nized fact that in Massachusetts ever.
fourth person one meets is an old maid
You may imagine, therefore, the sen
sation which was produced in the Com
monwealth when the 364,337 marriage
bic spinsters who live between Cap
Cod and the Berkshire Hills read th
following paragraph in the Boston pa
pers fortnight ago:
"Joshua Montgomery Sears, of Bos
ton, member of the Junior Glass o
Yale College, and the sole heir of the
large estate left by his father, the lat'
Joshua Sears, of Boston, attained hi!
majority on Christmas Day. He is &
young man of intelligence, and is sale
to be possessed of many of the charac
teristics of his father. Whether tbs
heir is to ever have the sole manage
ment and disposal of the estate is 9
question upon which the lawyers are il
some doubt. The valuation of the es
tate is now about nine million dollars. >
An account of the youthful heir him.
self, and of the remarkable man who
bequeathed all this wealth, and who in
his day did much to promote the pros
perity of New England, and stay the
falling fortunes of Boston, will, l am
sure, prove interesting.
First, let me give a sketch of the Sears
! family, which in its various branches is
one of the most prominent in Massa-
chusetts. The branch of the family
which is best known in this country is
the Sandisield branch, in which are two
distinguished scholars and divines, the
late Prof. Barnes Sears, d. D., Ii. D.,
at one time President of Brown Uni
versity at Providence, and now general
agent of the Peabody Southern Educa-
tional Fund, and his brother, the Rev.
Edmund Hamilton Sears, an eminent
clergyman, poet and author. Another
branch, which is chiefly prominent for
its wealth, social position, and old-fash-
ioned Massachusetts family pride, is the
Boston Sears family, which has been
one of the aristocratic families of Bos-
ton since early colonial days, and has
never shown the slightest interest in
either of the other branches. The third
branch is that to which Joshua Sears
and the young heir, above mentioned,
belong. This branch, which occupies
a much humber sphere in life, has been
for many generations a half pastoral,
half nautical family, at Yarmouth, on
Cape Cod; its members dividing their
time between farming and fishing, as is
the custom of the honest, simple, we'll
to-do inhabitants of the Cape. With
the exception of Joshua, who abandoned
the pursuits of his forefathers and went
to Boston to seek his fortune early in
the present century, the Yarmouth
SearSes have faithfully remained at
Cape Cod, where they still occupy
themselves with their double calling by
land and sea.
THE CAREER OF JOSHUA SEARS.
Joshua Montgomery Sears was born
on a Christmas Day, with a golden
spoon in his mouth two facts which
must be very gratifying to himself and
his family. His wealth did not descend
to him through long line of plethoric
ancestors. His grandfather was an
honest fisherman at Yarmouth, with
several children, whom he sought to
bring up to habits of industry, frugality,
filial piety and contentment. They
were all good children, and profited by
their fathers precepts; all except the
youngest boy, Joshua, the father of the
present heir. Joshua, though in child
hn 10 Of hn fo, 10
veloped as he grew up an impatient,
diScontented disposition, which was a
sore trial to his fathers heart. In COM
mon with Charles and Thomas, the old
er sons, Joshua was taught at an early
age all the mysteries of the tisherman'S
calling. He learned to lure the unsus-
pecting lobster from his crystal depths,
to bob for eelS, to play the gamesome
salmon, to take in the hungry blue-fsh
and gentle cod; but, though he was
taught all these arts, his father OBJ
served with pain that Joshua prac-
ticed them in a desultory manner,
which showed that his heart was not
in the work. On the3 day when
Joshua reached the age of seventeen,
the honest fisherman, taking two hoes
in his hand, and giving Joshua a bas-
ket, invited him to an expedition in
search of CLANS. As usual, Joshua
showed little enthusiasm in the game,
but scratched away with his hoe in so
half-hearted a manner that the clans
had no difficulty in evading his pursuit,
and his father had half-filled his basket
before Joshua had captured single
clam. Leaning upon his hoe, the old
man watched his sons efforts for a mo-
ment, and then said, "Joshua, | fear
you will never make a good fisherman.
81 am afraid not, father" said Joshua
''You have no energy, Joshua, and you
have no PATIENCE" said the old man.
"Without energy and patience you can
never expect to amount to any thing"
| am thus particular in mentioning
the events of the claiming expedition,
because it was the turning point in the
life of the future millionaire. In the
which followed, Joshua
convinced his father that he had aspira-
tons which might possibly lead to frui
ton in another field, though among the
Cape Codders he made so
poor ngure.
One week from that day a green,
awkward lad, adorned in a new suit of
hOmespun, and carrying a long, narrow
in his hand, was conducted
by his father to Boston, and there
" bound out" to serve two years in the
employ of firm with whom the elder
Sears had long had dealings in salted
fish. The firm were Messrs. Prince,
Halves & Co., dealers in rope, grind
stones, warming pans, dry goods, and
" w. l. goods" which last is the Bos-
ton name for groceries. 1t is needless
to follow the fortunes of Joshua through
the arduOus days of apprenticeship,
clerkship, and subsequent entrance into
business for himself We all know the
results of energy, integrity and watch