After almost two decades, I was unable to uncover the identity of the parents of my 3^rd great paternal grandfather, Abiram Spencer (1812-1871). I’ve wrote stories about where he lived, how he made a living, his strong support for the Union during the Civil War, his election to the Hartford city council, and even had a copy of his wedding photograph with his beautiful wife Annie (Bottom of page: Posts and photograph).

I looked for any trace of Abiram across the Northeast states, every corner of Connecticut, Ohio (CT Western Reserve), and (heck) even the islands of Caribbean! Births, deaths, marriages, wills, land grants and found absolutely nothing.

Until a 5^th cousin – 1x removed popped up, on Ancestry.com, as being a DNA match to me.  His 5^th great grandfather Daniel Spencer Jr. (1738-1818) of Hartford, Connecticut had two sons, Daniel and William. The DNA match descended from Daniel.

Daniel Jr.’s son William had a son named Abiram! I confirmed that William was the father of (my) Abiram through William’s will (above) where he notes his “beloved son Abiram.” Note: William’s full name is Joseph William Spencer, the name Joseph comes from a sibling that died in infancy. He used the name William in all of the documents associated with him.

I now have eight new generations of Spencer’s (below) to research and hopefully many stories to tell!

William Spencer (1780-1851) – Lois Hoskins (1780-1860)

Daniel Spencer Jr. (1738-1818) – Sarah Lord ((1743-1819)

Daniel Spencer Sr. (1705-1780) – Elizabeth Stiles (1705-1803)

Obadiah Spencer Jr. (1666-1741) – Ruth Kelsey (1669-1767)

Obadiah Spencer Sr. (1638-1712) – Mary Desborough (1641-1709)

Thomas Spencer (1607 – 1687) – Sarah Bearding (1623-1685)

Thomas Spencer (my 9th gg), was one of four brothers who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633, first living in Cambridge and moving to Hartford, CT in 1660 where — 152 years later, his 5th great grandson Abiram was born!

Gerald Spencer (1576-1645) – Alice Whitebread (1571-1628)

Michael Spencer (1531 – 1599) – Elizabeth ?

Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.

Copyright © 2021. All Rights Reserved by David R. French.

This is a story about Elisabeth (Holbrook) French (1847-1914) who was the wife of my 2nd great uncle, Charles Abram French (1832 – before 1914). According to a newspaper account, Charles was a family friend who first meet Elisabeth when she was only four years old. In the 1860 census, Charles (27) is listed as living in the home of Mahala (34-widow) and Lizzie (14) Holbrook. Thirteen years later, Charles and Elisabeth were married in Boston, Massachusetts. They had no children.

The interesting twist to this story is that upon her death in 1914, Elisabeth left $85,000 (the total estate was estimated to be $100,000) to homes for “aged” men and women, the Animal Rescue League, a couple of close friends and two of her doctors. Funds were also provided to the Red Acre Farm in Stow, Massachusetts, which was one of the first animal rescue organizations specifically for horses.

What is $85k in 1914 worth in today’s money? The answer is $2,214,029!

Elisabeth’s will provided no money for extended family members such as cousins, nieces or nephews. This really fried her cousin, Florence Bacon, who contested the will claiming that her aunt was not of “sound and disposing mind” when she made her will. The jury did not buy Florence’s argument, it took them only 10 minutes to decide that the will was valid. (below: news articles)

Charles was an agent for the Merchants Despatch Transportation (MDT) Company in Boston. MDT was established by the American Express Company and the company manufactured refrigerated rail cars. (Source: Norwich University, 1819-1911)

Note: One of the witnesses called in the case was my paternal great-grandmother, Mary McEachern French whose husband, Walter, was Charles cousin. There is no record of whether she was a witness for Elisabeth or Florence, however, if I could hazard a guess…..she may have cut a deal with Florence. Mary would be involved in a sensational court case a year later – Into the Breach-Promises, Promises.

Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.

Copyright © 2021. All Rights Reserved by David R. French