CENTRE LINES

The SHEARER Family

This column is part of a feature series which focuses on a different Centre County family each week. Five new columns will be released each month unless some technical difficulty enters the picture.

This column's focus is on SHEARER. An effort has been made to identify all persons carrying that name in the 1890 U.S. Census, using the Centre County business directory which was formed from a preliminary review of that census before the larger set of 1890 U.S. Census records was destroyed by fire. (Sadly, the postal directory does not typically provide the ages of females, but it's the best record we've got).

One book in the Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library in Bellefonte that apparently deals in part with the Shearer family. It is: John Owens' Owen, Long, Wantz, Krouse and Related Families (Austin, Pa., 1990).

There are 17 different first-name entries for Shearer in John Blair Linn's History of Centre and Clinton County (1883). In addition, there are several mentions of the name in Beers' Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania (1898).

And, now, your ancestors' Shearer neighbors in 1890:

In BOGGS Township:

George, 17--Milesburg

In PATTON Township:

James W., 55, shoemaker--Benore Nancy--State College

In SPRING Township:

David SHARER, 56, farmer--Zion Jemima L. Foster M. SHARER, 30, farmer--Axemann Pearl V. David M. 6 Minnie Clara G. Jerry I., 30, laborer--Bellefonte Anna M. Rebecca Thomas L. G., 52, blacksmith--Bellefonte Mary V. Rhoda B. Ira M. Anna Arie E. George D. Thomas

In TAYLOR Township:

Christian SHARER, 43, farmer--Port Matilda Eva Frances Calvin 17 Edgar J. 15 Zella Daniel H. 12 Perry 10 Annie E. John L. 6 Cecil 3 May Jerry SHARER, 45, carpenter--Port Matilda Margaret A. James M. 21 Abraham L. 18 Dorcas M.