Spencer S. Wooldridge 1824-1907

WOOLDRIDGE, CRAWFORD, HOSIER, FLEMING, RIZER, CURRAN, TIREMAN

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 8/25/2011 at 01:15:51

Spencer S. Wooldridge, the subject of this sketch, was born in Kentucky, May 1, 1824, and departed this life at Fayette, Iowa, after an illness of ten months, Friday, February 15, 1907, aged 82 years, 9 months and 14 days. When he was a mere child he moved with his parents, who came north because of their anti-slavery views, to the state of Illinois, where he lived until he was of age. Shortly after he was twenty-one, he emigrated from Illinois to Wisconsin and engaged in lead mining, near Hazel Green in Grant county. He remained in and around Hint section of the country for upwards of seven years, and alternated his time between farming and mining.

However, in 1852, as the cry of everyone was Westward Ho! he, in company with two friends, started for California, which was then the Eldorado of our country. Early in the spring, of 1852, just as soon as the ice was out of the Mississippi, they went down the river by steamboat to St. Louis, and then up the Missouri to St. Joseph. At St. Joseph they bought three yoke of oxen and the necessary supplies for crossing the plains, and as soon as the grass was large enough for grazing they started on their journey for California. After nearly five months of hardship and privation druing which time they had walked the greater part of the way across what was then called the Great American Desert, they finally came in sight of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was, indeed, a day of great joy to them when they crossed the border of California. Shortly after he arrived in California he began prospecting for gold in the vicinity of Marysville. For about nine years he followed the hard life of a California gold miner, spending most of his time along the head waters of the North Yuba river.

Early in the summer of 1861 he returned to Wisconsin, coming by the way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York City. The vessel on which he took passage was nearly captured by the Southern Privateers, but finally after a number of thrilling adventures, they reached New York in safety. Shortly after he returned from California, he came to Elk township Clayton county, Iowa, and ever since that Iowa has been his home.

He was first married in 1847 to Martha Shields Crawford, of Grant county, Wisconsin. To them was born one child, Mrs. J. C. Hosier, of Edgewood, Iowa, but it seemed that it was not the heavenly Father's will that this union should remain. After a short married life of three years, death claimed the wife and mother and left him and the little daughter alone. March 4, 1863 he was again united in marriage, to Margaret Fleming. Immediately after this second marriage, he settled on a farm just west of the Asbury church which is now known as the Moss farm. He lived on that farm for about ten years, and during that time he brought all the tillable land under cultivation. He then sold the place and bought a quarter section two miles south of the Asbury church. When he purchased this second farm, which is now owned by Hugh A. Rizer, it was a dense forest, having no improvements whatever, but by hard work and preseverance he soon made it one of the best farms of the community.

By his second marriage he was the father of six children, three of whom, Mrs. A. B. Curran, of West Union, Mrs. C. S. Tireman, of Fayette, and Miss Margaret Wooldridge, of Des Moines, Iowa, survive him. Besides these children he leaves one brother, Mr. John A. Wooldridge, of Oelwein, Iowa, who is now the last surviving member of the original Wooldridge family.

August 1, 1874, the angel of death again crossed his threshold, took the loved wife and fond mother, and left him and his three little children alone. Although an arrow had pierced his soul, his hopes were crushed, and his life desolate, he bore up bravely under his affliction, and ever afterwards lived to fulfill his beloved wife's dying request, that he should carefully rear the children. From that time until he closed his eyes in death, his one purpose and only ambition was the welfare of these children. In order to give the girls better school advantages, he,sold his farm, in 1886, and late in December of that same year moved to Fayette, Iowa, where ho placed his daughters in college, and he was never content until the last child had received her bachelor's degree from the Upper Iowa university. Since 1886, with the exception of three years which he spent with his daughters, Fayette has been his home.

He was converted at the age of sixteen and united with the Free Will Baptist church. Later, after he came to Clayton county, he united with the Methodist Episcopal church on the Edgewood charge, and became a member of the class in Fishel's schoolhouse. He was one of the prime movers of the church enterprise which resulted in the erection of the Asbury church. Being one of the original trusteees, he gave liberally of both his time and bis means when the Asbury church was built.

We do not claim he had no shortcomings, neither do we say he lived a perfect life (as the world views perfection) or that he made no mistakes; what we do say is simply this, that he lived up to the requirements of the Bible as he saw them, that he experienced the evidences of salvation and had a strong faith in Christ; and that at life's close there was no dark valley for him, because he repeatedly said with the Apostle, "I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

It is true that he was a man of strong character and of an iron will, that,when he once made up his mind, no one could swerve him; and that he was only a common man, a quiet, unassuming person - one who always did his duty without' a murmur and without any display; but in the end of all time, when the master crowns those who are worthy, perchance, that even common people, such as he, who have borne their burdens bravely and religiously, will be ranked among those who are greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The body was taken to Edgewood on the Saturday afternoon passenger train and was laid to rest by the side of his wife in the Asbury cemetery. Sunday afternoon, after a splendid funeral sermon preached in the Asbury church by Rev. Jason L. Paine, of Fayette, who spoke words of consolation to the bereaved friends from the text, characteristic of the deceased, found in Isaiah 50:7. The male quartette of Edgewood sang some beautiful hymns, most of which were the special favorites of
Mr. Wooldridge.
... A. B.C.

~Iowa Postal Card, Fayette, Iowa, February 21, 1907