Spencer, Mary A. (Haworth) c1823-1894

SPENCER, DUDLEY, YORK

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 6/30/2010 at 14:29:00

Grinnell Herald (Grinnell, Iowa) June 15, 1894

--A telegraphic message from Manitou, Col., on Sunday, brought the announcement that Mrs. C.H. Spencer had an attack of apoplexy, and on Monday Mr. H.C. Spencer received a message from his sister, Mrs. Mary E. Dudley, of Denver, then at Manitou, asking him to come immediately. He left that night and reached Manitou on Wednesday, but a telegram from him says that his mother died the day before his arrival. He also telegraphed that he would return here bringing the remains of Mrs. Spencer on Friday, and that arrangements should be made for the funeral on Saturday or Sunday. Mrs. Spencer's health had been very delicate many years, and the climate of Iowa was very trying to her, making residence here frequently a period of suffering from severe attacks of asthma. Her sojournings at home therefore became mere visits the length of which was determined by the duration of her freedom from her malady. A home in the light, high air of the Colorado mountains had therefore been a vital necessity to her. Mary A. Haworth Spencer was the fourth daughter of Hon. Joel Haworth, of the town of LeRay, Jefferson county, N.Y., born about 1823. She was educated at the Champion Academy, in her native county, and spent a part of her early life as a teacher in the state of North Carolina. She was married in 1850 to Charles H. Spencer, with him made their home five or six years at Great Bend, Jefferson county, where Mr. Spencer was engaged in a general merchandise business. In 1856 they came west with their two little boys and took up the life of the pioneer days of Grinnell, a life so varied in its phases and frequently so trying in its experiences. The friendships formed under these conditions, in which all that interested one of a small community was of interest to all the others, were of a lasting nature, and Mrs. Spencer numbered among her friends all of those whose names are associated with beginnings of the history of Grinnell. She took a warm interest in every movement for the advancement and welfare of the prairie community. She was an earnest member of the Congregational church and favored all the agencies for the diffusion of knowledge. At her new home in Manitou she was known as a kind and helpful neighbor and hospitable to the limit of her strength. She was equally earnest there in promoting educational and moral agencies. She leaves of her immediate family two sons and a daughter, H.C. Spencer of Grinnell, L.E. Spencer of Beatrice, Neb., and Mrs. Geo. Dudley of Denver. One sister out of five survives her, Mrs. Hannah P. York, of Adrian, Mich., she only surviving member of her father's family of six daughters and one son. Her last visit to Grinnell was on the occasion of the painful death of her husband in August, 1892.
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Grinnell Herald (Grinnell, Iowa) June 19, 1894

--The funeral of Mrs. Mary A. Spencer took place Sunday afternoon from the residence of her son, Mr. H.C. Spencer, and was largely attended by two generations of residents of Grinnell, those who were contemporary with Mrs. Spencer and their descendants. Rev. Prof. L.F. Parker conducted the services, assisted by Rev. E.M. Vittum, of the Congregational Church, of which Mrs. Spencer was a member.The honorary pall bearers were Rev. G.F. Magoun, Prof. S.J. Buck, Hon. E. Snow, Mr. E.S. Bartlett, Mr. W.S. Leisure, and Mr. Frank Wyatt. The active pallbearers were Messrs. H.F. Lanphere, S.J. Pooley, M.W. Swisher, C.A. Swisher, W.P. Arthur, and J.E. Bayer. R.M. Kellogg, an old friend of the family voluntarily conducted the funeral. Prof. Parker spoke briefly of the life of Mrs. Spencer in Grinnell and in Manitou, Colo., where her health compelled her to live the greater part of the past twenty-one years, and reading form the scriptures, the account of Jacob's vision at Bethel, made it the text for a cheerful view of the relations of this life and the next, the nearness of angels and human beings to each other, as shown in the patriarchal vision.