Spencer Family

SPENCER MOON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/18/2010 at 20:14:09

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Spencer Family
By Norman A Spencer

Elon G Spencer and his wife, Evaline (Moon) Spencer came to Woodbury County in 1885 from Waterman, Illinois. They had purchased farmland near the present town of Moville.

Elon’s father was Norman Wells Spencer, born January 20, 1818, in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Asa G Spencer and Huldah (Wells) Spencer. Norman was reared in Cortland County, New York., and was educated there in the Cortland Academy. He became a Christian Adventist Minister, a school-teacher and a farmer at Pitcher Springs, New York. He married Betsy Ann Harvey on April 7, 1844.

In the spring of 1850 Asa died. The following years, Norman bought land in DeKalb Counties, Illinois, and moved there with his family and his mother, Norman and Betsy Ann had three sons: Elon G born in 1846; Laben B born in 1850; and Wells born in 1854. They had three daughters: Zelia born 1852; Mary Lavina born in ?; and Emily born in ?. Norman and his sons farmed and he continued in the Ministry in Illinois until 1882.

Elon G farmed in the Waterman, Illinois, area from the time he reached manhood until 1884. During this time he met and married Evaline Moon. Evaline was born in 1862, the daughter of Jacob and Laney (Shoefelt) Moon. Eva was reared in the rural area near Travis City, Michigan. Hen she was sixteen, while living with friends in Illinois, she met Elon and they married December 30, 1880.

In 1882 the Illinois Central Railroad had reached Meriden, Iowa. The Milford Land Company, a Massachusetts firm, had advertised for settlers to occupy land and Norman Wells, his wife and daughters moved to Meridan where Norman had purchased land. He continued his Christian Ministry there.

In 1884 the railroad had reached LeMars-Wells remained in Illinois, to farm the Spencer land, but Elon and Laben brought separate farms in the Moville-Kingsley area.

In the spring of 1885 Elon, Eva and their two sons, Ralph and dreddie put their wordly goods onto the Illinois Central and arrived in LeMars for their wagon trip to their farm.

Their first home was a 16’ x 16’ single room shelter which the next year became the kitchen of their spacious house. The year 1886, also brought sadness. That fall Freddie died of diphtheria.

Elon and Eva were to have six more children: Ralph born in 1881 at Waterman, Illinois, married Hannah Stamper in 1906; Pearl born in 1887 married Lawrence Countryman in 1906; Ross born in 1889 married Edna Adams in 1914; Ida born in 1891 married Ross Sherwood in 1911; Corrina born in 1893 married Arthur Machamer of Kent, Illinois in 1918; Winnie, born in 1896 married Raymond Carrington of Correctionville in 1919; and Arthur born in 1898 married Bertha Warner of Schaller in 1921.

To compliment their new home in 1887 they established a large lawn with elm, birch and pine trees. Elon established a nursery and an orchard and sold trees throughout the area. The large lawn was kept mowed and a favorite game was croquet. Their home became known at The Pines. Near the house on this and most farms was the cave. There up and there the summer vegetables and fruits were stored for winter. In 1887 the railroad arrived from the east. Getting supplies and marketing crops was now easier.

There were no organized schools. In 1888 the Arlington School Board with Elon and Laben as members voted to divide the Township into nine districts, each two miles square. The Spencer home was one tenth of a mile form the country school Arlington No. 5.

Moville needed churches and Elon was chairman of the finance committee to raise money for the new Congregational Church built in 1896.

A lawn isn’t any good unless you use it. In the 1920s on the last day of school in May it was an annual event to have a gigantic picnic for the whole Township on the Spencer lawn. Rural and town people alike would come.

By 1912 Elon had retired and Ross farmed the Spencer land. In 1907 Edna Adams of Alta hard from her brother, Harry, of Bronson, that the Moville School needed teachers. She was hired. In 1914 she and Ross bought the Spencer land across the road and in 1929 they built a new home and farmstead with a spacious lawn on that land. For them it was a tradition to have large picnics on the Fourth of July. Ross spent many years on the Woodbury County REC board and President of the Woodbury County Board of Education.

Rose and Edna had three children: Audrey was born May 4, 1915; Jean was born July 30, 1916; and Norman Adams was born May 16, 1918. Each received their BS degree from Iowa State University and while there met their future spouses.

Audrey married George Bickford of Corning, Iowa, June 15, 1941. Jean married Donald Livingston of Monroe, Iowa, January 14, 1940 and Norman married Margaretha Geiger, an Iowa State graduate from the Amana Colonies, on May 17, 1942, in Seattle, Washington.

Norman served in the United States Army form December 1941 until March 1945, receiving the rank of Captain. Since 1946 Norman and Marg have farmed the land on which Ross and Edna lived. In 1969 they purchased that land.

Norman and Marg have two children, Robert born in 1947 and Elaine born in 1949. Robert born in 1947 and Elaine born in 1946. Robert received his DVM from ISU and is in practice in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Robet married Robert Wolf of LaCrosse. Elaine received her B S from ISU and Juris Doctorate from Yale and is an attorney in Seattle, Washington. She is married to Dennis Forsyth of Des Moines.