Richard Warren Sears (1863-1914), cofounder of Sears Roebuck and Company, was born in Stewartville and lived in this house from 1863 to 1869. He was the son of James Sears, a pioneer Stewartville blacksmith. In 1869 Sears began his career as a railroad telegrapher. Fifteen years later, after working in several Minnesota communities, he founded the R.W. Sears Watch Company. Alvah C. Roebuck, a young watch repairman, joined Sears in 1887. In 1893 the Chicago-based firm became known as Sears Roebuck and Company. By the middle of the twentieth century, Sears had become the leading retailer in the United States. Richard Sears retired from the company in 1908 and died six years later in Waukesha, Wisconsin.