Armstrong Spear 1853-1924

SPEAR, ARMSTRONG, SMITH, BRACKETT, TUTTLE, HICKMAN, KENNEDY

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 7/29/2016 at 08:44:53

14 August 1924 - The Tipton Advertiser

Armstrong Spear was the youngest child of Robert and Elizabeth Spear, an Irish Protestant family. He was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, September 12,1853. The family came to America by an old sailing vessel which encountered unusually severe storms, which drove it from its course, stripping it of its masts and consumed seven weary weeks to make the sea voyage to New York. On arriving in New York, the family went immediately to Philadelphia, where they had relatives. After two years in the city, they were induced by the Moffit family, with whom they had been friends and neighbors in Ireland, to come to Cedar county. It is interesting to note that the Spear-Moffit families have continued friends to the present day, and each year hold a picnic which the two families attend.

Mr. Spear grew to manhood on his father's farm in Cedar county. It was when he was but ten years old that he first decided to enter Cornell college. His older brother, Alexander, had brought a lumber wagon load of neighbors to attend the college commencement exercises in Mt. Vernon. Little Armstrong was so impressed at the time with Cornell that he resolved to enter college as soon as he was old enough.

He entered Cornell in 1871 and was graduated in 1878. He did not attend continuously, as part of the time he taught country school.

In Mr. Spear's library today is a touseled blue book whose fly leaf bears a neat inscription in the Spencerian script of the day. It reads "Armstrong Spear. December 4, 1872" The book was bought in Clarence by Mr. Spear with the first money he had ever earned. It was Scotts' "Lady of the Lake" of which he continued to be found of as long as he lived and from which he quoted long passages from memory throughout his life.

He was ever a lover of good literature--not the latest futuristic books of the day, but of the classics which were to him not so much books as tried and trusty friends. It was his custom each Christmas season to read aloud from Dickens' "Christmas Carol", commenting that no book ever written so well expressed the yuletide spirit.

On leaving college, Mr. Spear went to Philadelphia, where he engaged in business. In 1881, he was married there to Miss Anna Armstrong, whose death occurred in 1904. While in Philadelphia, he was a member of the board of directors of the Republic Trust company.

He was prominent in the Masonic order while in the east, being a life member of Keystone lodge, No. 271. A.F. and A.M. He was a Knight Templar and a thirty-second degree Mason. Later, on coming to live in Mt. Vernon, he attended the Masonic lodge frequently, and often spoke of how happy he was in his Masonic friendships here.

In 1912, Mr. Spear was married to Mrs. William M. Smith. Her family, the Bracketts, who had likewise been an Iowa pioneer family, had been numbered among his early friends. Edgar T. Brackett had been a friend of his first year at Cornell, and the marriage between him and Mr. Brackett's sister was an unusually felicitious one.

Since coming to Mt. Vernon in 1912 Mr. Spear has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell. He was intensely interested in the college and took an active part in its affairs. At the time of his death he was secretary of the board. Last June, in spite of his ill health, he signed 108 gradation diplomas. He spoke often of how happy he was to perform the task.

Mr. Spear is survived by Mrs. Armstrong Spear, his wife; his daughter Miss Elizabeth Smith, of New York City; his brothers, Alexander, Steward and Johnson Spear, of Tipton; and William, living in another part of the state; Mrs. Matthew G. Kennedy, a niece in Philadelphia, and two other nieces also of Philadelphia, Mrs. William C. Tuttle and Mrs. Fred Hickman. Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Tuttle came west to attend the funeral services.

The services were held at Mr. Spear's home on Monday, August 4. They were short and simple. President Harlan Updegraff of Cornell, and Dr. J. M. Johnson, of Waterloo, gave short addresses. Mr. John L. Conrad and Mrs. Emmet Harland Soper sang.