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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa
W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889

[page 471-472]

    N. W. SPENCER is one of Sheridan Township's intelligent and
    representative men. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, Jan-
    uary 30, 1818, and is a son of ASA G. and HULDAH (WELLS) SPENCER.
    His father was a native of Connecticut, and a farmer by occupa-
    tion; he served in the War of 1812.  The mother was a native of
    Massachusetts.  In 1852 the parents removed to the State of New
    York, where the father died.  In 1853 the mother removed to Illi-
    nois, and died there in 1861.  N. W. SPENCER was reared in the
    State of New York, and received a superior education for that
    time in the Cortland Academy, New York.  After leaving school
    he engaged in the profession of teaching; this he continued for
    eight or nine terms, spending his summers in farm work.  When he
    had taught two terms in Illinois, he determined to abandon the
    profession, and in order to carry out this desire he bought a
    farm in De Kalb County, Illinois, on which he lived until 1882.
    In that year he removed to Cherokee County, Iowa, and purchased
    seventy acres of land in section 11, Sheridan Township, on which
    he is still living.  Mr. SPENCER was married in April, 1844, to
    Miss BETSEY A. HARVEY, a daughter of PAUL and ELIZABETH (SOUTHWORTH)
    HARVEY, who was born in Chenango County, New York, December 10, 1820.
    Her mother was a native of the State of New York, and her father was
    born in Rhode Island.  Mr. and Mrs. SPENCER are the parents of six
    children: ELON G. and L. B., living in Woodbury County, Iowa;
    ZELIA A., wife of ARTHUR STEWART, of Cherokee Township; W. F., of
    De Kalb County, Illinois; EMMA, wife of PHILLIP SMITH, of Amherst
    Township, and LAVINA, living with her parents in Meriden, Iowa.
    Politically Mr. SPENCER is a Prohibitionist.  In De Kalb County he
    held the office of township clerk, and was deputy county super-
    intendent of public instruction.  He and his wife are worthy mem-
    bers of the Adventist Christian Church; he has been a preacher
    for about thirty-five years, and has done faithful service for
    his Master.  He is a man firm in his convictions of right and
    wrong, and has the confidence of the community in which he lives.

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