Kate Spencer 1848-1922

SPENCER, LETTS, FOREMAN, HARVEY

Posted By: Beverly Gerdts (email)
Date: 10/2/2023 at 06:19:36

Columbus Gazette, Columbus Junction, IA
Thursday, April 6, 1922
Page 2

Miss Kate Spencer, an old resident of Louisa county, died at the home of Mrs. Faye Letts at Letts, last Thursday morning at the age of 73 years. She had been ill for several months, her decline beginning last summer when she suffered a bad fall. The death of Miss Spencer ended a career of more than fifty years spent in the service of one family. For forty-three years she had been an inmate of the J. R. Letts home and for the past eleven years she had lived with Mrs. Faye Letts when the former home was broken up.

Miss Spencer was born September 14, 1848 on the shore of the Mississippi near Port Louisa. Her father Henry Spencer, was a riverman. He died a few days before Kate Spencer was born, leaving the baby and a two year old son, Henry Jr., in the care of the mother. Mrs. Spencer went to make her home in Muscatine with a brother but afterwards moved to Muscatine Island where her husband had owned a small tract of land. Mrs. Spencer died at the age of 28 years.

The two children went to live with Mrs. Charles Foreman in Cedar county, Mrs. Foreman being an aunt of their mother. Later Kate Spencer came to Letts, where she lived with the Sam Harvey family. Her term of service with the J. R. Letts family began July 28, 1869 and ended when the home was broken up with the death of Mr. Letts, in October, 1912. She went to live with Mrs. Faye Letts.

This record of service is believed to have been the longest continuous term on record at the time. Fond of children, Miss Spencer had made herself invaluable to the family and occupied a place as one of them during her entire life. Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon at 1 o'clock at the home of Mrs. Faye Letts in Letts, conducted by Rev. Patterson of the Methodist church. Burial was made in Greenwood cemetery at Muscatine, beside the grave of her mother.