Peter Alonzo Spencer, Sr.

Peter Spencer was the third of thirteen children born to his Elias and Sarah (Graves) Spencer between 1799 - 1826. Sometime before 1814, Peter's father moved the family to Jasper County, GA. Still later, records show them living in Jones County, GA.
Very little is known of Peter's boyhood years. Since his father was a farmer, it is reasonable to assume that as soon as Peter was old enough his father taught him farming skills. He, no doubt, worked beside his older brothers, John and William, on the family farm helping to till the soil, sow the crops and later helping with the harvest. Tobacco, corn and cotton were major crops in the areas where he lived as a child and young adult.
In 1817, when Peter was thirteen years old, Elias received eleven land grants in the Alabama Territory. Alabama had been carved out of the Mississippi Territory that same year. Elias moved his family to his new land holdings in Montgomery County, Alabama Territory.
According to family tradition, eighteen-year-old Peter left his home and family in 1821 and migrated south to Pike County, Alabama. It is believed that he was accompanied by his younger brother, Levi, and four meñ not related to him. Conditions in the newly created county and state were still very primitive. Hostilities with the nearby Creek Indians were quite common.
Peter established himself near a settlement known as Gainer's Store; later to become Henderson, Alabama, the county seat. He probably selected this area because good farm land was abundant for homesteading.
A family story passed down through the years relates to young Peter's first contact with a Creek Indian. He met this old Indian who told him many stories of how he had killed white settlers in the area before the Treaty of Fort Jackson was signed in 1814. The Old brave said that he had only one regret. During a raid on a settler's farm, he had killed a white baby by tossing it in the air and striking it with his tomahawk.
On July 31, 1823, just two years after arriving in Pike County, Peter married Nancy Darby, the eighteen- year-old daughter of James and Martha Darby. The ceremony very likely, occurred in the bride's parents home. This was a common practice in the nineteenth century. Nancy was born in South Carolina on October 15, 1804. Sometime before 1823, her father moved the family South to Pike County, Alabama, settling near Gainer's Store. In Margaret Farmers book, "One Hundred Fifty Years in Pike County, Alabama 1821-1971", she notes that the Darby family were pioneers in the Gainer's store area. Nancy's father and mother were charter members of the oldest church in the vicinity, the Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church, organized on October 23, 1827.
Peter followed in his father's footsteps and became a farmer. This is confirmed in the Pike County Census of 1860. Between 1833-1857, he purchased over five hundred acres of farm land between the communities of Spring Hill and Henderson. Before the community of Spring Hill was so named, it was known as Spencer's Ford. Peter was renowned in the area for his technique of terracing hilly farm lands to prevent soil erosion. His farm also produced some of the finest fruit in the county. He used a system of boxing the base of his fruit trees and filling the boxed area with leaves to form humus.
In 1850, when he was forty-six years old, the Pike County census records show that Peter's property was valued at $10,000 and personal property valued at $9,685. His landholdings at the time were extensive enough to require the services of an overseer, Stephen Thompson, thirty-five years old.
Still further evidence of Peter's increasing prosperity is shown by the fact that he owned eleven slaves. One of them, a blacksmith named Lafayette ,but called Fate, cost Peter $1,000.
During her twenty-eight years of marriage to Peter, Nancy gave birth to fourteen children. Two sons, John and Francis, died from the ravages of measles before their fourth birthday. Both Peter and Nancy were skilled in the use of herbal medicine and amateur doctoring, but they could not save their sons. Even so, it was well-known in the community that the Spencer children received better than average medical care at home.
When Nancy gave birth to her fourteenth child on December 20, 1851, something went wrong. The baby died that same day, followed by Nancy, the next day. They died at the family homestead near Spring Hill, just two months after Nancy's forty-seventh birthday. Records, show that Nancy is buried in the cemetery of the Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church near Henderson, Alabama. A search for her grave in 1980, and again in 1981, was unsuccessful.
It was accepted practice in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that if either the husband or wife died, the spouse was expected to remarry as quickly as possible. Six months after Nancy's untimely death, forty-eight year old Peter married Clarinda Harrell Easters. They were married in Pike Coun ty on June 16,1852 by Reverend J. M. Wood (Marriage Records Book 1849 to 1859, Book "B", Page 120). Clarinda was a thirty-five-year-old widow with an eight-year-old son, William Morgan Easters (born Jan, 31, 1844). In 1860, he was still living in the Peter Spencer household. Morgan, as he was known, was later killed in the Civil War.
The Easters family were merchants in the Gainer's Store Community. In the close-knit community, it is probable that Clarinda knew Peter, Nancy and the Spencer children prior to Nancy's death.
oThe 1860 Pike County census notes that Clarinda could neither read nor write. This was not uncommon in Alabama in the nineteenth century. It was generally held by farm parents that girls were needed at home to help with the many household chores, therefore most girls got little or no formal schooling. This was especially true of large families. History also records that schools were very bad in the area. They operated at lrregular intervals with teachers who knew scarcely more than their pupils. This condition existed until well after the Civil War. For that reason, all of Peter Spencer's children were poorly educated, as were most of his grandchildren.
Carinda gave birth to seven children during her seventeen-year marriage to Peter. She died sometime before August in 1869, at or near fifty-two years of age. Her exact age is unclear. Clarinda is buried beside Peter in the cemetery of the Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church.
ln the summer of 1869, shortly after Clarinda's death, Peter made, declared and published his Last Will and Testament; he named Samuel P. Darby, a nephew by his first marriage, as the executor of his estate. Except for a cash settlement of $150 to Nancy Caroline, and $100 to George Elias, children of his first marriage, Peter left his entire estate to the seven children of his second marriage.
On August 8, 1869, three days after-publishing his Last Will and Testament, Peter married for the third time. He was almost sixty-five years oId. His new bride, Sarah Mount-Watson, called Sallie, was a fifty-five year old widow with seven children of her own. They were married in Pike County, Alabama by Reverend G. W. Simmons (Marriage Records Book: November 1867 to 1872, Page 261). Because of her age the marriage produced no children.
The 1870 Pike County census records notes that real estate owned by Peter was valued at $2,600. Between 1860 and 1870, the value of the real estate owned by him dropped by $7,400. There may be two reasons. First, after 1860, he perhaps settled some of his land on the children of his first marriage. Second, property in the South was considerably devalued after the Civil War.
Just sixteen months after marrying Sallie, on January 2, 1874, Peter passed away. He was sixty-six years, ten months and twenty-four days old. During his lifetime, he had fathered twenty-one children, the majority of whom lived to adulthood and old age.
Sallie had promised Peter that she would stay on at the homestead after his death and care for his minor children. She failed to carry out that promise. As a result, the four younger children were raised by relatives. Henry and Columbus lived with their half-brother, George Elias. Peter Alonzo, Jr. lived with Laura, his older sister, and her husband, Judson Lord. Joseph G. lived with his half-sister, Mary, and her husband, Mack White.
After Peter's death the executor of his estate, Samuel P. Darby, testified in Probate Court in Pike County that the value of Peter's estate did not exceed $5,400. This estimate would appear to be within reason when you consider that in 1870 the value of Peter's real estate was, only $2,600.
Family tradition holds that there was a family cemetery located, on the Peter Spencer homestead, and that Nancy, Clarinda and Peter were originally buried there. The homestead was located between the communities of Spring Hill and Henderson. Allegedly, after the property passed from family hands, the bodies were exhumed and re-interred in the cemetery of the Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church where they now repose.
Five years after Peter's demise Samuel Darby, the executor, was still in control of Peter's estate. None of the heirs had received their one-seventh share of the estate. Several of them filed suits, against the executor, seeking a court ordered division of the assets, but they were unsuccessful in their attempts. Between 1871 and 1876, court records attest to the fact that the executor did make some cash advances to the heirs or their guardians for their care, and he also paid a number of debts incurred by the heirs.
Laura and Joseph, two of the heirs of Peter's estate, contended that they did not receive their fair share of their father's estate. Laura said she received only $70, and Joseph said he got only$ 1,000, after he hired an attorney. These charges against Sarnuel Darby have never been substantiated. An examination of the executor's records in 1981 at the Pike County Probate Office in Troy, Alabama, revealed no glaring irregularities.
In a letter from Peter Alonzo Spencer, Jr. to Annie Laurie Spencer, a cousin, dated May 19, 1929, Peter states that his father had a brother, Levi, living in Mississippi, and another brother, Benjamin, living in Texas.
DATA SOURCES: Pike County census records of 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, and 1870. Marriage records, Probate records and Land records in the Pike County Probate Office, Troy, Alabama. Peter Spencer, Sr's family Bible; Letters written by Joseph G. Spencer, son of Peter Spencer, to Annie Laurie Spencer, dated June and July 1929.
Note: The above information on Peter Spencer was copied from the"Genealogy of Leon B. Spencer". . . . . .