Barnas Sears

Barnas Sears (November 19, 1802 – July 6, 1880) graduated from Brown University in 1825. Sears was the general agent of the Peabody Education Fund who was sent to Staunton, Virginia, by George Peabody to offer leadership in Public Education. Sears was General Agent of the fund from 1867 until February 1880. He settled in Staunton because of the easy access to the railroad.
Sears travelled extensively throughout the south promoting Southern education, "free schools for the whole people". Sears "inspired confidence, removed doubts and suspicions, and aroused sympathy" through his warm personality, tact, and intelligence.
"Under his direction the Fund improved the sentiment for education in the South, developed the idea of adequate taxation for public schools, and helped remove the hostility toward Black education."

Sears served between 1855 and 1867 as the president of Brown whose Encyclopedia Brunoniana offers a more detailed biography.[1].
His home at Staunton, known as the Sears House, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.