History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 139

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340

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JOHN E. SOPER, blacksmith, Ulster, was born in North Towanda, this county, December 6, 1864, and is a son of Edward O. and Jane E. (Bailey) Soper, natives of this State, of English descent. In his father's family there were ten children, he being the fourth in order of birth ; six of the ten are living, and are in this county. The father was a farmer, and John E. was reared on the farm, attending school until fifteen years old, and receiving a fair education. He learned his trade at Burlington, and commenced for himself there in 1888; was there two years, when he removed to his present place; he is a skillful mechanic and has a large business. He was married, December 24, 1889, to Mary E., daughter of John and Charlotte M. Sims, natives of this county. Mr. Soper is a member of the Golden Cycle, and has filled the chair of vice-speaker ; in politics he is a Republican.

CHESTER P. SPALDING, superintendent Towanda Gas Works, was born in Athens, this county, October 12, 1818, and is a son of Robert and Aurelia (Satterlee) Spalding, and of the eighth generation of Edward Spalding, who came from England to America about 1632, and settled in Massachusetts. His paternal grandfather was William Miter Spalding, who settled in Sheshequin, this county, in 1788, and afterward resided in Athens and Sheshequin. He married, August 23, 1789, Rebecca, daughter of Gen. Simon and Ruth (Shepherd) Spalding, who settled in Sheshequin, this county, in 1783 ; the issue of this union were ten children, of whom Robert, father of subject, was the first child and eldest son, and was born July 1, 1790, and was a resident of

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Athens township many years. He engaged in farming and lumbering, and in 1840 removed to Wysox township, where he continued in the same business until his death, and where, for a short time, he was also engaged in general business. He was the father of eleven children, viz .: Cynthia A. (Mrs. F. A. Tyler), Alex H., Chester P., Rebecca (Mrs. S. P. Gore), Lemira K. (Mrs. M. J. Coolbaugh), Israel P., Aurelia (Mrs. Jerry M. Collins), Mary P. (Mrs. C. S. Russell), George, Robert M. and Helen M. (Mrs. William Elwell, Jr.). Chester P., the subject of the sketch, was reared in Athens, where he received an academical education. He removed to Wysox township with his father in 1840, where he assisted for a time, and afterward engaged in farming until 1851. In the spring of 1852 he located in Rockford, Ill., and remained there until the spring of 1869, when he returned to Bradford county, locating in Towanda, where he superintended the building of the Towanda Gas Works, and has since been the superintendent of the company. On October 20, 1842, he married Mary, daughter of Allen and Mary (Kingsbury) Smith, of Bath, N. Y., by whom he had three children, as follows : Florence, Henry K. and Rowena K. He is an attendant of the Universalist Church, and politically is a Republican.

HORACE M. SPALDING, produce, coal and plaster dealer, Troy, was born in Canton township, this county, October 7, 1840, a son of Andrew E. and Cynthia S. (Holcomb) Spalding, and is a descendant of Edward Spalding, who emigrated from England to America, in 1832, and settled in Massachusetts. His paternal grandfather, William P. Spalding, a native of New England, was a pioneer of Canton township, and cleared and improved the farm now known as the "John Brown Farm," and resided near there until his death in 1877; his wife was Eleanor Watts, by whom he had six children : John, Andrew E., Ezra, James, Elizabeth (Mrs. Loren Morse) and Jane (Mrs. Richard Hughes), all born in Canton township, Andrew E., in 1811. After reaching manhood Andrew E Spalding engaged in the hotel business, in which he continued to his death, September 12, 1857, when he dropped dead in his hotel, the "Canton House," at Canton, Pa .; his wife was a daughter of Sterling Holcomb, of LeRoy township, this county, and by her had five children : John M., William S., Horace M., Charles E. and Jennie (Mrs. U. J. Manley). Our subject was reared in Canton town- ship, and in early life engaged in farming. In 1872 he located in Troy. where he engaged in the dray business eight years; became a member, in 1879, of the firm of Beardsley & Spalding, hardware merchants, Troy, which style continued until 1884, then from 1884 to 1890 as Beardsley, Spalding & McKean, when he retired, and has since been engaged as a buyer and shipper of produce, coal and plaster. Mr. Spalding married, May 19, 1864, Lovina, daughter of Dr. S. W. and Amanda (Bailey) Shepard, of Troy, and they have four children : Cora A., S. Hillis, Andrew E. and Fred L. Mr. Spalding is a member of the Disciple Church and I. O. O. F .; has always taken an active part in public affairs, was burgess of Troy one term, and councilman eight years ; in politics he is a Republican.

MAJOR ISRAEL P. SPALDING'S first ancestor in America was Edward Spalding, who came from England about 1630-33, and settled

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

in Braintree, Mass. His father was Robert Spalding, a native of what is now Bradford county, who was born July 1, 1790, and was married, July 2, 1814, to Aurelia Satterlee, by whom he had eleven children; he was the son of William (Wilter) Spalding, a native of Connecticut, who settled in what is now Sheshequin, in 1788, and married, August 23, 1789, Rebecca, daughter of Gen. Simon Spalding, of Sheshequin. William (Wilter) died in 1845; he was a son of Oliver, son of Ephraim, son of Edward, son of Benjamin, son of Edward Spalding, first above mentioned. Major Spalding was born in Athens, this county, January 22, 1825, and was the sixth child and third son of Robert and Aurelia (Satterlee) Spalding'; he was married, December 21, 1852, to Ruth E. Cooley, daughter of Alva Cooley, of Myersburg. His life was spent on the farm until the breaking out of the Civil War. In 1862 he took an active part in enlisting men for the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment, P. V. I., and was elected captain of a company from his own neighborhood, and on the organization of the regiment, August 29, 1862, he was elected major, and served in that capacity until his death. He received a slight wound at the battle of Chancellorsville, and on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, was twice wounded in the same leg, a minie-ball shattering his ankle-joint, and another passing through the fleshy part of the thigh; exposure and the complication arising caused his death, on July 28, following. Major Spalding was a special favorite of his regiment, and his loss was universally mourned ; he was buried near his home in Wysox, August 2, 1863; his children were three in number, viz .: Ella, Fred and Israel P., Jr.

JOSEPH E. SPALDING, farmer, P. O. Franklindale, was born in Franklin, this county, July 22, 1826, a son of William B. and Delight (Spalding) Spalding, the former a native of Sheshequin, the latter of Plainfield, Conn. William B. was a son of John Spalding, who was one of the first settlers in Sheshequin ; John was the son of Simon Spalding, a colonel in the Revolutionary Army under Gen. Washington. John Spalding and his future wife, Miss Wheatley Gore, were in the Wyoming massacre, but escaped by a hasty flight. In after years they returned to and settled in the Wyoming Valley, and after the lapse of a few years the two families removed to Sheshequin, where John Spalding and Miss Wheatley Gore were married. They had fourteen children-eleven sons and three daughters-and the son Harry was the first male child born in Sheshequin. William Spalding, his son, was born August 24, 1786, and about 1810 commenced business in Franklin, in partnership with his brother Noah, in the milling and lumber business. William was the first who discovered coal in Barclay town- ship, in 1812. He married, May 20, 1816, Delight Spalding, of Canton, and their family consisted of five children: Sarah (deceased), Ezra (deccased), Hannah, Joseph E., and Anna. William, at the time of his residence in the county, is reported to have been the oldest male in Bradford county; he lived in Franklin until 1846, when he went to Texas to visit a brother, where he died, at Corpus Christi, September 10, 1847. Joseph E. Spalding was reared in Franklin and educated at various schools, spending some time at Mannington, in Susquehanna county, and also at Cazenovia, Madison Co., N.Y .; he finished his educa-

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

tion at Towanda, where he also learned surveying, which he has followed from 1847 to the present time. At the age of thirty he married, at LeRoy, January 31, 1856, Miss Louisa, daughter of Mr. Kelder, of Onondaga county, N. Y., by which marriage there were three children : Susie M. (born August 24, 1857, married Martin Kerry), Anna Delight (born March 4, 1860, married C. M. Fanning), Wm. S. (born July 22, 1861, married Mrs. Sarah Curtis), the latter residing in Montana and reported to be very wealthy. Mr. Spalding entered the army during the Civil War, October 24, 1862, as sergeant of Company C, One Hundred and Seventy-first Pennsylvania Drafted Militia, for a term of nine months ; then re-entered the army, in September, 1864, in Com- pany B, Third New York Artillery, to serve one year ; was honorably discharged from both commands, and now draws a pension. He has retired from active business life, and is at present living with his daughter, Mrs. Martin Cary. He is a member of the F. and A. M., I. O. O. F. and G. A. R .; is a Republican, and has held the office of county surveyor six years, also other town offices, such as road commis- sioner and school director.

ELIJAH CICERO SPENCER, farmer, of Wysox township, P. O. Wysox, was born in Bridgewater, Susquehanna Co., Pa., January 15, 1817, a son of Neimiah and Elizabeth (Swan) Spencer, natives of Connecticut, and of English lineage. We find in this family some- thing that few heretofore have known Bradford county to possess- a branch of the famous English Spencer Family. Gen. Joseph Spen- cer, of Revolutionary fame, was the grandfather of Elijah C .; he was also of the wife of Lewis Cass, who was candidate for President in 1860. Dr. Ichabod Spencer, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Hon. Joshua Spencer, of Utica, N. Y., are also branches of this family. The con- nection of the different branches of this family in England and Amer- ica is shown beyond a doubt in a letter to Jared Sparks by Charles Sumner, in which he was assisted by the Earl of Spencer ; and in which he also relates the convivial relations that existed between the Washingtons and the Spencers. After leaving Connecticut. Neimiah resided in many different places, at brief intervals, and in 1819 came to Orwell ; he subsequently lived in Sheshequin, and finally in Wysox ; was killed, in 1839, by a horse, which he was riding on Main street, Towanda, falling on him. In his family there were eight children, of whom our subject is the youngest. Elijah Cicero Spencer began life for himself in his early "teens," working on a farm and in sawmills until he was sixteen; then engaged with Martin Ridgebury, of Wysox, to learn the shoemaker's trade ; he remained with him three years, and one year with A. A. Bishop. He followed this occupation to some extent for thirty years, at the same time clearing and tilling a farm of 111 acres, which he purchased in 1842. frequently working in the field all day and on the bench until midnight. Mr. Spencer was married, December 5, 1841, to Mary Jane, daughter of John and Polly (Lent) Bull, natives of Orange county, N. Y., and they have nine children, as follows: George P .; Henry C., born March 31, 1845, a farmer, in Wysox township; Mary Ellen, born May 3, 1848; John Clayton, born January 26, 1850, a miller, of Watertown, S. Dak .;

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Joseph C., born October 10, 1852, died June 30, 1885; Thomas A., born April 17, 1855, a carpenter in Chicago, Ill .; William L., born January 14, 1858, an employe of James Shalor, Towanda, Pa .; R. Reed, born January 30, 1861, an employé of his brother, J. C., at Watertown, S. Dak., and Emma I., born May 12, 1863. The Spencer family are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Pond Hill, of which Mr. Spencer has been trustee thirty years and steward twenty-five; he is an earnest advocate of the principles of prohibition, and has done much for the advancement of education in Bradford county, nearly all his children being teachers.

GEORGE P. SPENCER, farmer, P. O. Wysox, was born, August 28, 1842, on the farm where his father now resides, a son of Elijah C. and Mary Jane (Bull) Spencer. In his father's family there were nine children, of whom he is the eldest. He spent his boyhood on the farm, and in attending the common school and select schools ; began life for himself at the age of twenty-one, teaching, which he has fol- lowed to some extent since, having taught, in all, twenty-one terms. From 1865 to 1868 he clerked in a tea store and in a gents' furnishing goods establishment in Jersey City, and in 1884 he purchased his pres- ent home of fourteen acres. On November 27, 1872, Mr. Spencer married Hannah M., daughter of Edward C. and Lydia (Horton) Vought, of Ghent, natives of Pennsylvania, and they have one child, Edward C., born March 16, 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Myersburg. He is a Prohibi- tionist, and has been auditor of Asylum.

HORACE SPENCER, farmer in West Burlington township, P. O. West Burlington, was born September 1, 1841, at Providence (near Scranton), Pa., a son of Horace and Hannah (Denton) Spencer, natives of Dutchess county, N. Y., and of English origin; they removed to Pennsylvania and experienced all the privations of pioneer life, as tillers of the soil ; they reared a family of nine children, seven of whom grew to maturity. Horace, who is the fifth in the order of birth, was reared on the farm, and has successfully followed agricultural pursuits. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Forty- first P. V. I., and served until the close of the war, participating in several battles ; was finally made a bugler of the regiment, and was present at Gen. Lee's surrender, serving in all nearly three years. He is a pensioner. Mr. Spencer was married, November 14, 1866, to Elvira A. Johnson, of Granville, who was born November 19, 1845, only daughter of George A. and Lemira (Ballard) Johnson, who were among the pioneers of Granville. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have had born to them four children : George A., Alfred C., Myra and Floyd. He is the owner of two farms-the homestead of 100 acres, and another near it of 100 acres, on which he carries on a fine dairying business, also raises sheep. Mr. Spencer has been well known many years as a teacher of singing schools. Politically he is a Republican, and has held several offices of public trust. He is much respected by the entire community.

JAMES EDWIN SPENCER, farmer, P. O. West Burlington, was born, January 21, 1835, in Dutchess county, N. Y., a son of Horace and

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Hannah (Denton) Spencer, natives of that county, born of English extraction, and farmers by occupation ; they removed to Pennsylvania when James E. was a lad of five years of age, and settled near Scran- ton, where they had a farm, and reared a family of nine children, of whom our subject is the second in order of birth, and six are still liv- ing; the father died, October 8, 1882, at the age of seventy-two years, and the mother, August 15, 1891, aged eighty-two years. Mr. Spencer was reared a farmer, and removed to Bradford county in 1850, settling on his present farm in West Burlington township in 1860, which was then a wilderness. By strictest economy and great perseverance he has accumulated a fine property, the farm consisting of 100 acres, on which he has built one of the finest residences in the town. Mr. Spencer was twice married : first time to Catherine Brown, by whom he had three children : Mertie, Hattie and Dewitt ; she dying in 1874, he was afterward married to Charlotte Whitehead, of Burlington, to whom have been born children, as follows: Hezekiah, Jay E. and Benjamin H. Mr. Spencer is a Republican, but gives his attention more to busi- ness than to politics. He is a member of the Patrons of Husbandry.

FRANK H. SPONSLOR, proprietor of the "Canton House," Can- ton, is a native of Mechanicsburg, Pa., born March 5, 1852. His par- rents were David and Susan (Breinizer) Sponslor, also natives of Penn- sylvania; the father, who was a stock-dealer and dealt quite extensively in horses, died in Mechanicsburg, Pa., in 1868, in his fifty-first year; the mother died in Warrensburg, Mo., in 1888, in her sixty-sixth year. Frank H. Sponslor, who is the fifth in order of birth in a family of six children, was reared in Mechanicsburg, and received a public-school edu- cation; went to Altoona in 1870 and worked in the Pennsylvania Rail- Road Company's Passenger Car Shops three years; then went to Hazel- ton and worked in the sash and door factory about six months, after which he engaged in the glassware and notion business with Frank Fullerton, under the firm name of Fullerton and Sponslor, and they continued in business a little over a year, when Mr. Sponslor moved to St. Louis and traveled for a short time in the West. Returning to Hazelton by way of New York, he embarked in the grocery business with his brother-in-law, James Gilmore, which continued two years; he successively took charge of hotels at the following places: Dauphin, Middleton and Bethlehem; he then removed to Canton in August, 1884, and took charge of the " Canton House." Mr. Sponslor was married in Reading, Pa., October 17, 1881, to Sarah, daughter of Benjamin and Annie (Hocker) Myers, natives of Dauphin county, Pa .; her father is a farmer and resides in Dauphin county. Mrs. Sponslor is the eldest of six children; she is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Spons- lor is a member of the F. & A. M., Canton Lodge, No. 415; Troy Chapter, No. 261; and Canton Commandery, No. 64; politically he is a Democrat.

JOHN D. SQUIRES, retired farmer, was the first child born in Herrick township, this county, south of the State road. He was born January 2, 1821, a son of Charles and Mary (Webb) Squires, natives of Connecticut. The father, who was a blacksmith, came to this county in 1815, and located in Asylum township; then in 1820 removed

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to Herrick, when the country was almost an unbroken wilderness ; he crossed the river on the ice, and had to cut a road through the woods nearly two miles; his first log-house was 20x30 feet, and contained two rooms, with one window in each room, six panes, 8x10, a fire- place at each end, and a Dutch oven built in the house ; the first winter the chimneys were built only to the joist, and an aperture was left in the roof for escape of the smoke; the house was made almost without nails, the rafters and sheeting were ash poles split and fastened with iron nails made at his forge; the roof was of white split pine boards, fastened with poles. The first night after moving into this house the whole roof was broken in by snow and lodged on the joist. This was a primitive log cabin, gotten up and furnished in the most primitive manner ; the bedstead was of white pine split from the log and nailed together with nails manufactured at his own forge ; he also made all the tools used by him at his trade and on the farm, such as axes, hoes and rakes. Mr. Squires has in his possession a griddle over one hundred and thirty years old. To plant the first crops in this wilderness they cleared the trees and brush from the land, and with axes and hoes worked the dirt loose among the roots and deposited their seed, covering the same with what loose earth they could scrape up, and, with exception of occasionally pulling the weeds, this was all the cultivation the crop received, but there was an abundant yield. There were no school. houses in the neighborhood until after his tenth birthday, when his father and neighbors, Isaac Camp, Warren C. Granger and William Gamble, erected a small log-house, which was used as a school and church many years. Hannah Smith was the first teacher, and at the close of school she married Joseph Camp; the first sermon he remem- bers was preached at his father's house by Levi Baldwin, a Baptist minister. He was ten years old when he first commenced to attend school about two months in the year until he was twenty-one, and very early engaged in lumbering, rafting, clearing and farming; he has cleared a large amount of land and fitted it for the plow. In 1844 he purchased the farm now owned by Mr. Camp, then wild land, and sold it in 1864. Mr. Squires was married in 1845 to Eliza, daughter of Rev. Levi Baldwin, and to them were born six children, four of whom died in infancy ; the survivors are Levi S. and Gideon P., the latter of whom married Harriet Whipple, of Standing Stone.

LEVI S. SQUIRES was born in Standing Stone, Pa., September 23, 1846; attended the common schools of the county until twenty, farmed until 1890, and studied theology during his leisure hours. In 1888 he received a call, and is a prominent Baptist minister, ordained Septem- ber 9, 1890, as pastor of the South Auburn Baptist Church, of which he is now pastor. He was married October 23, 1867, to Mary M., the youngest in the family of six children of Joseph and Mary (Molyneux) Pardoe; to them has been born one child, Eva J., who was educated in the common schools of Bradford county, and at the Keystone Acad- emy, Factoryville, finishing at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa .; she was filled with a desire to become a foreign missionary from her fourteenth year, and was educated with that design. On Septem- ber 26, 1890, she started, fully equipped for her field of labor in Burmah,

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and she is now there earnestly engaged in her work. Mr. John D. Squires is a member of the Baptist Church; in politics a Prohibitionist, and has held several township offices; his son Levi S. is a Republican.

PEMBROKE S. SQUIRES, farmer, P. O. Ballibay, was born December 23, 1829, on his present farm, which was the home of his father, Charles Squires. He attended the common schools until his fourteenth year, since which time he has devoted his life to farming, lumbering and threshing. In 1853 his father gave him the homestead, and he executed to him a bond and mortgage to support and care for him the remainder of his life, paying to the other heirs their share in the estate, in all 100 acres, to which he has since added eighty-nine, and built his present residence in 1863, and the barn in 1869. Mr. Squires is the son of Charles and Mary (Webb) Squires, natives of Massachusetts and Connecticut, respectively. The mother was a daughter of Santhare Webb (born August 9, 1790), and she was married November 10, 1810, in her native place. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Squires came from there to Asylum township, this county, in 1815; in 1820 moved to Herrick township, and improved the family homestead, where they spent the remainder of their long, useful and honorable lives. Charles Squires was born September 15, 1787, and died Janu- ary 29, 1865, aged seventy-seven; his consort, Mary Squires, died July 12, 1866, aged seventy-six. They were the parents of thirteen children, and left, living, four daughters and five sons, twenty grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

When Mr. Squires carne to the new country he was a skilled black- smith, and so worked in connection with his farm many years. The family were exemplary members of the Baptist Church. Nearly fifty years this brave man and his wife lived in the wild wilderness, to the reclaiming of which were devoted their strong and brave energies. They were in the far front of the little band that hewed the way in the primeval forests. He located and cut out the highway that now runs from Camptown to Smithboro, and he assisted in much of the early-day surveying in this region about. Their pilgrims through the woods on foot or with oxen teams; the encampment by the babbling brooks on the mountain side; the first log-house; going long days' journeys to mill, and the little ones waiting the return for their supper porridge; the long intervals of visits from distant neighbors; the dreary silence, so often only awakened by the hungry wild beasts' terrifying cries- these were some of their experiences. Mr. Squires, among other inci- dents, would tell of his returning home just after dark, when suddenly appeared before him in the path a panther. The animal would walk along-side of him; when Mr. Squires would stop, it would also stop, and when he would go on, it would also, and only when almost at his cabin did the panther turn off and disappear. Mrs. Squires, going on one occasion to the stream to wash, discovered a gang of wolves approaching ; she took her position by the vessel of boiling water, pre- paring to defend herself as best she could, and they turned away, only frightening her.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 139

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.) Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340