LAZARUS SPENCE

Family: The parents of Lazarus, Samuel Perry Spence and Elizabeth Inman Spence, were living in Perry County, Tennessee, when Lazarus was born in 1825. His grandparents were Samuel and Mary (Williams) Inman, and Elisha and Sarah Susanna “Susie” (Spencer) Spence.
Lazarus was the oldest of his siblings who were: Susannah “Susan” Diane (1825-1830); Samuel Elisha (1827-1840); William David (1827-1907)--married Manerva Caroline Hood; Rebecca Jane [Triplett] (1828-1859); Millie Catherine [Bunch] (1837-1896); Newton Jasper (1841-1882)--married Mary Jane Brooks; Sarah Elizabeth [Hull] (1843-1912); and Louis Wesley (1844-1890)--married Amanda Taylor.

Moving to Missouri: Sometime between 1830 and 1840, Samuel and Elizabeth moved their family to the Sarcoxie area, which was then in Newton County, which would become Jasper County, Missouri, in 1841. [Note the name of the brother of Lazarus—Newton Jasper—born in 1841.] The Daniel and Lucy Bryant family lived nearby with their daughter, Adeline.

Marriage: Lazarus and Adeline married December 23, 1848. Adeline reported that marriage in an interview with a Carthage, Missouri, newspaper in the early 1920’s. "In 1848, two days before Christmas I was married to Lazarus Spence, I, being at that time fifteen years old, and we moved over on Jones Creek east of where Haggard's store now stands. We lived here peaceably enough until the war broke out, my husband farming and also doing some blacksmith work.” They were married at the Freedom Baptist Church in Jasper county, which Samuel Spence had helped build. For the next 12 years, Lazarus worked at building his farm and his skills as a blacksmith.

Adopting Daughters: In October 1860, Lazarus and Adeline, having no children of their own, took in two little girls who had been orphaned. Mary Elizabeth and Martha Jane Vermillion lost their parents when Octavia (Boren) Vermillion died giving birth to Martha Jane on October 1, 1860. The father of the girls, Hiram F Vermillion, died about 8 days later. The Vermillions also had 2 sons, Jesse J. and James B., both of whom went to live with their Aunt Rachel (Vermillion) and Uncle Jonathan Swaggerty in the Mound City township of Linn Co., Kansas.

Petitioning the General Assembly: Lazarus wanted to make the fostering into a formal adoption of Mary Elizabeth and Mary Jane, so he petitioned John B. Dale, who was the Jasper county Representative to the Missouri General Assembly, to introduce a bill to enable the Spences to adopt the children. Mr. Dale did, and the bill was approved:
AN ACT to enable Lazarus Spence of the county of Jasper to adopt two children. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri as follows:
1. That it shall be lawful at any time for Lazarus Spence of the county of Jasper to file his declaration in writing with the Recorder of his county declaring his intention to adopt Mary Elizabeth Vermillion, aged three years, and Martha Jane Vermillion, aged four months, and upon the filling of said declaration, duly acknowledged before any Justice of the peace in said county, that the said Lazarus Spence shall be vested with all the rights and control over the persons of the said Mary and Martha, that he would have over his natural children, and from and after the filing of said declaration, the said Mary and Martha Vermillion shall be considered in law as the heirs of the said Lazarus Spence and Adeline E Spence, his wife, and shall be entitled to all the rights that they would have if they were his natural heirs. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved March 15, 1861.

Business and the Beginning of the Civil War: Lazarus was not only a successful farmer, but also an accomplished blacksmith. He had many local residents who used his skills. And as the Civil War was upon the area, he had many additional customers, some friendly, and some not so much. Adeline reported, “When the confederate army was in Jasper county in the months following the battle of Carthage, confederates frequently were at our house and required my husband who was a blacksmith to shoe horses for them, always treating us courteously but paying for the work in confederate or state of Missouri money which was practically worthless. After the soldiers left we were visited from time to time by bushwhackers who acted polite enough at first and paid in confederate money, like the soldiers, for what they took. As the weeks passed, however, they changed their attitude and took whatever they wanted without paying for it.”

Targeted: Lazarus was a Union man, and had a target upon his back, as many knew of his Northern sympathies, and his skills and abilities, as well as his possessions. He had had his horses, his rifle, and household goods stolen from him by bushwhackers from Granby who had come to take his life, and his wife was in fear for his life. (In June of 1861, he had alerted his neighbors, after taking a load of corn to Neosho, about the pending arrival of Colonel Siegel’s troops into the area. Southern sympathizers were not pleased. “Mr. Spence had hauled corn, along with other farmers of union sympathy, to Sigel's troops when they held Neosho and consequently was something of a marked man. [Jasper County in the Civil War, by Ward L. Schrantz, 1923]”)

Leaving Home: So they left their home in December of 1861 and traveled to Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas, where they had family. Adeline reported, "The situation seemed to be getting worse instead of better and on December 23, we decided that we would not stay another minute but leave while Mr. Spence was still alive. He was sick with the measles as were also two orphan children who were staying with us, but we hitched up the horse the bushwhackers had left us, together with the unbroken two-year-old, and went to Kansas. With us went Joshua Stacy, a brother of Miles [the man who may have informed the bushwhackers about the Spence household] but a union man, and a friend named Waggoner, both of these enlisting in the union army as soon as we reached Fort Scott." [JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR pages 56-58, Ward L. Schrantz, 1923] They lived there during the years of the Civil War, with Lazarus registering in the Civil War draft registration as a blacksmith, age 38, from Tennessee.

Years of Peace: By 1870, Lazarus and his family were back home on the farm in Jasper County again, and had a full household with his wife, their two daughters and one of their brothers (Jesse J Vermillion, age 16) who was probably learning the blacksmithing craft, her mother Lucy, Lucy’s brother William and his wife, Susan. It is interesting that the last names of the daughters were recorded as Vermillion in the census. During the 1870’s, Lazarus and Adelaide would see both of their daughters married. In 1876, Martha Jane married William Hastings DeFries, and by 1900, they had a family of six children and were living in Oklahoma. Mary Elizabeth married, in 1877, John Adams Shafer. By 1890, they had five children and lived nearby in Joplin, Missouri.
At some point during the 70’s, Lazarus moved his blacksmithing and farming skills from their place in Jackson township to a farm in Marion township, just south of the Newton county line, and he and Adelaide lived there peacefully.

Death: Lazarus would live to see the 1800’s become the 1900’s. He died on November 15th, 1902, age 77, at his home on the farm, with Adelaide at his side. His death notice in The Carthage Press on November 20th, was brief and succinct: “W. L. Spence departed this life November 15, 1902 and was laid to rest at the Moss Springs Cemetery, Fidelity. Laz Spence was buried at the Moss Cemetery Monday. Mr. Motley conducted the funeral service.”
The writer of his death notice speaks of him with a nickname, “Laz”, indicating familiarity with this pioneer of the community, who gave much, and lived an adventurous, rich and varied life.


Note: With great appreciation to the research done by Dr. Barbara Inman Beall, whose work in genealogy enabled many of the details in this biography. And with appreciation to Linda, who created this memorial and made possible this biography.

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