Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
I don't know whether this would have any bearing on the situation of the Mississippi Spencers or not, but our Ohio Spencer family also had a Lafayette Spencer, son of Samuel Spencer of Belmont & Morgan Counties, Ohio. This Lafayette and his brothers moved to Clay County, Illinois during the War. Coming from Quaker stock, they opposed war in general and none of them fought in the Union army. (And obviously being anti-slavery, none fought for the confederacy, either.) The War of the Revolution was, however, a somewhat different matter.
The name Lafayette stemmed from the family's connection with General Washington, who was a personal friend of our Lafayette's great grandfather Nathan Spencer of Loudoun County, Virginia. Nathan Spencer maintained an inn in his house at what is now Lincoln, Virginia (then Goose Creek), conveniently located on George Washington route of travel to the Washington family estates in the Shenandoah Valley.
Abraham Dawes Jr. was the brother of Nathan Spencer's mother, Mary Dawes Spencer. In 1736, Abraham built a spacious stone house called "Dawesfield" in Whitemarsh Twp., Montgomery Co., Pennsylvania. Before Valley Forge, Washington and Lafayette made their HQ at Dawesfield, which by this time had become the home of Abraham Dawes' daughter and Nathan Spencer's cousin, Elizabeth (Dawes) Morris.
When I visited the home in 1987, it was owned by Dr. Chesson, whose wife was a descendant of Elizabeth (Dawes) Morris. The desk Gen. Washington and Gen. Lafayette had used had never been moved, in 210 years. The bed Gen. Washington used had likewise never been moved. I don't recall whether Dr. Chesson pointed out to me where Lafayette had slept.
In any event, when Lafayette returned for his triumphal tour of America, in 1824/5, it is likely that Nathan Spencer's son William, then an innkeeper in Belmont County, Ohio, saw him. Or at least the General made enough of an impression on William's son Samuel Spencer that Samuel named a son after him.
Lafayette also toured in the South, passing from South Carolina through Mobile and the Mississippi coast to New Orleans, and thence up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. Possibly the grandfather (or even father) of William Lafayette Spencer saw Lafayette at that time.
This may have also (or alternatively) been a means of perpetuating in the family the fact that an antecedent of William had fought under Lafayette in the War of Revolution. Typically LaFayette's men were extremely devoted to him, as he was to them.
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/spencer/messages/9199.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|