Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

D. C. SEARLES, farmer and stock, Sec. 16; P. O. Joliet; the subject of this sketch was born 
in Summit, Ohio, Jan. 30, 1830. He married Miss Hattie WALKER Oct. 21, 1866; she was born in 
Plainfield Twp., Will Co., IL, July 8, 1836; they had four children, three living, viz., 
Maud L., born Oct. 8, 1867; Lynn W., born June 8, 1869, and Edna, Jan. 14, 1874. He lived 
in Ohio twenty-one years, when he came to Illinois and settled in Plainfield Twp., where 
he engaged in farming; remaining, until spring of 1856, when he came to his present place; 
he has been Justice of the Peace eight years, and is now serving in his fourth term of 
Supervisor; he started in poor circumstances and now owns 700 acres in this township, 
which he has earned by his own labor. His parents, Amos SEARLES and Mrs. Hannah (HULBERT) 
SEARLES, came to Will Co. in the fall of 1851 and settled near Plainfield; they died April 
5, 1871, and Feb. 9, 1866, respectively. His wife's parents, James WALKER and Mrs. Jane G. 
(WALKER) WALKER, were natives of North Carolina and Tennessee; Mrs. WALKER came to Illinois 
in 1806, and passed through present Will Co. in 1820 and built a house where Plainfield 
now stands in 1829; Mr. WALKER died in Plainfield Aug. 27, 1850; Mrs. WALKER died in 
November, 1859, in Iowa, while on a visit. Her grandfather was a missionary among the 
Indians, and preached the first Protestant sermon in Chicago, also in St. Louis; he was 
of the Methodist denomination.