October Ancestry Challenge – George Washington Spencer

The October Ancestry Challenge 2013 is 23 posts in 23 days (Monday through Friday) about 23 ancestors.

We’re in week two!

 

Ancestor #5 – My 3rd great grandfather George Washington Spencer

 

 

My 3rd great grandfather was George Washington Spencer. He was born June 1829 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and died at the age of 72 in July 1901 in Newton Co, Mississippi. He was the son of Rev. William Saladin Spencer and Martha Didama Gross. He had ten siblings and was the second from youngest, so I imagine he got away with just about anything he wanted to. You can just imagine by the tenth child, you’d just throw up your hands and say, “Whatever!”

 

 

 

 

Behind this church is the cemetery where his parents are buried. It is possible George attended this church and his father may have preached there. (the photo is from my cousin mebauc)

 

George married Nancy Virginia “Jenny” Holdcroft in 1858 at the age of 29. She was ten years is junior. Hubba hubba. They lived in Newton County, Mississippi, and he was listed on the 1860 Federal Census as a school teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

When the Civil War broke out, he joined the 35th Mississippi Infantry, Company B on March 1, 1862 and some of the muster rolls show him as being hospitalized in Jackson, Marion, and Lauderdale Springs. Reports state he had an infection in his leg. In 1864, he was granted a medical discharge. My cousin told me George’s wife went by wagon to pick him up and bring him home. Though it’s nearly impossible to read, the following is his medical discharge.

 

 

 

 

The leg infection did not stop him from making whoopee, however! He had seven children between 1859 and 1878, the eldest being my 2nd great grandmother Nancy Didama “Grandma Damie” Spencer Burke.

 

He is laid to rest next to his wife (who died in 1928 at the age of 89) in unmarked graves at Hickory Cemetery, Newton County, Mississippi.