Sears, Clara Endicott (1863–1960) - U.S. History

Clara Endicott Sears was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1863, to Knyvet Winthrop and Mary Crowninshield (Peabody) Sears. She went to private schools in Boston and was tutored privately in Europe. She became interested in colonial history and the preservation of houses of historical interest. In 1912–13 she bought and restored “Fruitlands,” home of Bronson Alcott in Harvard, Massachusetts, where the New Eden Utopian community was started in 1843. She had the oldest house built by the Shakers moved from an abandoned Shaker village at Harvard to Fruitlands Hill in 1911. In between she wrote Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands (1915), Gleanings from Old Shaker Journals (1916), and Peace Anthem (1919). She wrote Days of Delusions , a history of the Millerites (1924); The Great Powwow (1934); Wind from the Hills (1935); Some American Primitives (1941); Highlights Among the Hudson River Artists (1947); Snapshots from Old Registers (taken from the registers of 1880–1900 of the Hotel Vendome in Boston) (1955); and Early Personal Reminiscences in the Old George Peabody Mansion in Salem (1956). She also compiled Prentice Mulford’s Works in 1913 and The Power Within , writings of various New Thought authors, in 1914. Sears was a trustee of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and was awarded a gold medal by the National Society of New England Women in 1942. She was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, Colonial Dames of America, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Clara Sears died in Boston on March 25, 1960.