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Z 0196.000 S
SPENCER (HORATIO NELSON) PAPERS
1828-1912

Biography/History:

 Horatio Nelson Spencer was born in Hadlyme, Connecticut, on November 22, 1798. He was the son of Israel Seldon and Temma B. Spencer. Horatio Nelson Spencer spent his early life in Connecticut and graduated with a law degree from Yale in 1821. Spencer married his first wife, Theresa Goddard, on September 23, 1824. The couple settled in Hillsboro, Georgia, where Spencer practiced law and taught school. The family later moved to Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi, where Spencer established a law practice in 1828. The Spencers had two children: Maria Elizabeth (b. December 12, 1827) and Horatio Goddard (b. February 28, 1830). Theresa Goddard Spencer died on March 21, 1830. Horatio Goddard Spencer died on June 6, 1830. Spencer married his second wife, Sarah Ann Marshall, on April 19, 1832. The couple had ten children, five of whom lived to adulthood: Israel Seldon (b. March 23, 1837), Samuel Marshall (b. December 19, 1838), Horatio Nelson, Jr. (b. July 17, 1842), James Grafton (b. September 13, 1844), and William Butler (b. March 4, 1849). Sarah Ann Marshall died on March 20, 1854. Spencer married his third wife, Prisilla Turnbull, on January 24, 1856.

The Spencer family moved to Almont, a plantation located three miles outside of Port Gibson, on January 17, 1838. Throughout his life, Spencer was active in various Port Gibson business and social circles. He helped organize and build the Bank of Port Gibson and served as its first president. Spencer was also president of the Port Gibson and Grand Gulf Railroad in 1857. He was an elder of the First Presbyterian Church for over forty years and supervised the construction of the sanctuary between 1859 and 1861. Spencer died at Almont on April 18, 1876, and was interred at Wintergreen Cemetery in Port Gibson.

Scope and Content:

 This collection consists of the following items:

  1. Journal (1) containing a schedule of real and personal property in Port Gibson, n.d.; the pedigree of Durham stock and a heifer, June 13, 1839; an accounting ledger, 1835; recipes for polishing furniture and salting beef; a remedy for whooping cough; the cost of possessions at Almont Plantation, January 1, 1838; the sale of crops from various plantations, 1835-1844; and a journal of Almont Plantation, January 17, 1838-January 1, 1845.

  2. Journal (2) containing various cures and recipes; a record of slave births, 1817-1862; miscellaneous accounts, 1835-1837; lists of slaves on various plantations, 1848-1849, 1856; a plantation journal, February 19, 1845-November 7, 1853, March 20, 1854, April 12, 1857, October 15, 1865, November 28, 1865; miscellaneous plantation records, 1850s.

  3. Cotton book containing a record of cotton production, August 1845-December 1849, August-September, 1853; a plantation journal, January 10, 1869-May 7, 1870; and sale of crops from various plantations, 1845-1861.

  4. Daybook, 1839-1870.

  5. Miscellaneous items such as a printed copy of the official state census return for Mississippi, 1837; a telegram from S. M. Spencer (son of H. N. Spencer), Dalton, Georgia, September 25, 1863; a codicil to the will of H. N. Spencer forgiving a debt owed to him by the Port Gibson Presbyterian Church, May 1, 1865; a manuscript indicating the weight of cotton shipped from Highland Plantation, September 25, 1859; the text of a speech possibly delivered by H. N. Spencer, n.d.; a license to practice law in Georgia, September 9, 1828; a map of Almont Plantation, n.d.; a letter from Matthew W. Day, Mechanics Bank, Newark, New Jersey, to H. N. Spencer, April 24, 1851; a typewritten copy of the obituary of H. N. Spencer as it appeared in the Southern Reveille, April 22, 1876; a broadside entitled "To the Planters of Mississippi," by Lieutenant S. M. Spencer, Port Gibson, March 23, 1863; a pardon of H. N. Spencer signed by President Andrew Johnson, August 11, 1865; miscellaneous clippings; photocopies (2) of the amnesty oath of J. G. Spencer (son of H. N. Spencer), October 2, 1865; photographs of the Port Gibson Presbyterian Church, the Claiborne County Courthouse, the grave monument of H. N. Spencer and his second wife, and Holyrood, a home built by H. N. Spencer for his brother, Israel; Confederate currency--one $10 note and three $100 notes; Bank of New Orleans notes, February 18, 1857, October 22, 1860; Bank of Port Gibson note signed by H. N. Spencer, August 1, 1838; deeds, 1829, 1834-1835, 1837-1838, 1840-1842, 1845-1845, 1849-1850, 1881, 1911-1912; and land plats of Almont Plantation, n.d.

Series Identification:
  1. Journal (1).
  2. Journal (2).
  3. Cotton book.
  4. Daybook.
  5. Miscellaneous items.