THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

August 23, 1990

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            In the first of my stories, I mentioned taking you on an imaginary cemetery walk, but since have decided to extend my field of research to other events, as you may have noticed; so our cemetery walk can be compared to a baseball game – it can run into rain delays.

            Today I will resume the cemetery walk by stopping at the gravesite of Capt. Thomas Spencer, who served in the War of 1812.

            The location of his grave is in the lakeside Addition of the Waupaca Lakeside Memorial Park, a name that was changed several years ago from the Waupaca Lakeside Cemetery.  The Lakeside Addition is bordered on the east and south by County Trunk “K,” on the west by the Townsend Addition and on the north by Center Avenue and the Old Original Cemetery.

            Thomas Spencer was born in Hartford, CT, March 19, 1789, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Epiphas Spencer.  He was married to Hannah Aikens, who was born at Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York, November 19, 1798.  Their children were:  Rodney, who died in New York at he age of 14; Laura, who later married Charles Chesley in Waupaca; Myra, who married Ezra Thompson of Greenwood, Clark County; and Ira, who married and stayed on the home farm in the Town of Lind.

            Thomas Spencer was raised on a farm in Connecticut, and when still a young man he migrated to the state of New York.  He was a captain during the War of 1812, and was in the Battle of Lundy’s Lane and served with distinction throughout the war.

            This is found in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Upper Wisconsin.  I have in the past written to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. for his military record, but they have failed to locate any with the information that I have supplied from the state of New York.

            While Thomas Spencer lived in the state of New York, he was sheriff of Franklin County and held a Customhouse office.  Franklin County borders the St. Lawrence over in the north-west corner.

            His wife died in New York state in 1846, and in the spring of 1850, he left two graves behind and took his other three children and started to what was then the “Far West.”  They came down the St. Lawrence into the Great Lakes and around Michigan to Milwaukee.  They brought with them five horses that hauled the family as far as Berlin, Green Lake County.  Here the children stayed while Capt. Spencer ventured farther north in search of a good place to settle.

            He settled in what was later section 18, Town of Lind.  This was still Indian land and was not opened for settlement until June 2, 1862, at midnight.  This made him a squatter.

            His first shelter was a shanty of lumber hauled from Weyauwega.  Poles were stretched from tree to tree and the boards leaned up against them.  This was on the north shores of what is now known as Spencer Lake, named in honor of the Spencer family that settled there.

            Here he married again, but had no children. I have never been able to find out who this lady was, or whatever happened to her.  She does not have a tombstone on the Spencer lot beside her husband.

            He built a large house which was known far and wide as “Spencer’s Hotel.”  He donated the location for a grist mill to Robert Parfrey in Parfreyville, with the stipulation that he grind the first grain before Waupaca could.

            It is well remembered that the first grinding in Parfrey’s mill was one Saturday afternoon.  The next day Robert Parfrey attended a meeting at the Home of Thomas Spencer.  After the sermon, an before the benediction was fairly finished, Mr. Parfrey jumped to his feet and, taking a handful of lour from his coat pocket, shouted at the top of his voice, “Here’s a sample of my flour.”  This can be found in the Standard History of Waupaca County, by Ware.

            Capt. Thomas Spencer died July 26, 1881, thus ending the life of the only veteran of the War in 1812 buried in Waupaca.

            A notice that appeared in the Waupaca Record, Thursday, May 26, 1910:  “Veterans in the Lakeside Cemetery, whose graves will be decorated Monday, May 30,  75 Civil War (unclear copy, possibly “8”) Spanish American and 1 War of 1812.”