Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Spaulding, Jerry 1898
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Ionia Daily Sentinel-Standard, 29 Nov 1898

The funeral of Jerry Spaulding was attended from his late residence in Ionia 
township, Saturday last, and a very large representation of friends and pioneer 
citizens followed the remains to his last resting place beside the little grave 
of his beloved grand-daughter in Highland Park.  Rev. D. Oxtoby officiated at 
the funeral with comforting words to the bereaved family left behind.  The 
genial smile and happy ways of Mr. Spaulding will be missed by the large circle 
of his friends, and the family have the sympathy of the mourning community.

Jerry Spaulding, the son of Isaac Spaulding, was born in Onondaga, New York, 
March 14, 1832.  His ancestors were of Quaker stock.  He was the fifth of a 
family of eight children, of whom three are now living, Mrs. Elma Knapp, of 
Orleans; Mrs. Priscilla Clark, of Chicago, and Mont Spaulding of Orleans.

He lived a number of years, in the earlier part of his life, with his cousin, 
Mrs. Emily Corey Clark, who is now living in Baraboo, Wis., and who had a good 
deal to do in the early forming of his character.  At the age of 21 he came to 
Ionia, Mich., and two years later purchased the property known as the “Lovell 
farm,” where he has ever since resided.

On Sept. 11, 1856, he was married to Clara M. Everest, also a native of New 
York.  To them were born four children; three sons, Philo Lee Spaulding, Nelson 
J. Spaulding and Wickliff J. Spaulding, of Ionia, and one daughter, Mrs. Horace 
C. Watson, of Oakland, Cal.  In addition to their own children, they also 
raised two others, Belle Soule, a niece of Mrs. Spaulding, afterwards, Mrs. 
Chester Chase, who died, leaving an infant daughter, Claribel, who has ever 
since shared the same home as that of her mother.

The friends from away were Mrs. Nell Buswell, Grand Haven, Mich., Mrs. Julia 
Crane, Grand Rapids, Mich., Mrs. Cheney Spaulding, Middleville, Mich., Mrs. 
Newcomb Brown, Jackson, Mich., Miss Hattie Brown, Jackson, Mich., Mr. and Mrs. 
Preston Moshier, Jackson, Mich., Miss Louie Everest, Petoskey, Mich., Miss 
Wilma Everest, Detroit, Mich.

M. Clark Preston read the following feeling eulogy of Mr. Spaulding at the 
funeral:

“Notwithstanding all that has been revealed to us in the bible, death is a 
solemn impression and dreaded event.  We all realize its certainty, but rarely 
accept it gratefully.  Very few that have passed the period of middle life but 
feel its coming, and have the thought of it an ever present guest.  We cannot 
put it away from us if we would.  We would like to know more of the beyond, but 
the good Father has wisely hid the future from our view.  Today we meet here in 
His presence to pay tribute, to think and speak of our honored and beloved dead.

To me Jerry Spaulding was a very dear friend, as he was to many of you here 
assembled.  I have not the time to mention in how many ways he became endeared 
to me, nor of the many pleasant hours spent in his company.

I came to love him and respect him, not because he was a successful farmer and 
business man, not entirely because he was a loving husband and tender and 
affectionate father, but as I came to know him intimately, I learned of his 
genial, happy and sunny nature, and the poetical and refined side of his 
character.  It is not flattery to state that in his mode of thought and 
expression, he was above the ordinary man.  If his early life had been along 
scholastic lines he would have made a national reputation as a verse maker.  As 
a writer of prose he was of no mean ability.  As an illustration of his 
felicity of expression and the elevation of his mind, an extract from a paper 
of his, written for a Lincoln anniversary, is a fair example.  He says: “No 
words of mine can express a just conception of a character so pure, so great 
and so divinely grand, as the spotless and living soul of the martyred hero.  
Need there be a higher or purer type to which we can point, or more perfect 
standard to which we can aspire!  With a birth the most humble of human 
surroundings, with no special or superhuman interposition to his behalf, he 
rose by his own sweet will and the untiring and increasing energy of his soul, 
inspired by highest hope, strongest faith and tenderest love to the grand and 
glorious high where humanity and divinity blend into a soul the earth and 
heavens will ever honor and glorify.”

If time permitted I could give many expressions of his of this high order.

But it is not alone of his intellectual endowments would we speak; his warmth 
and geniality of spirit made him a comrade of the best sort.  No one could long 
have the blues in his company.  His happy hand-shake and hearth greeting were 
infections, and no citizen in the county had a greater number of friends or a 
wider acquaintance.

We were glad to see him on warm and cold days.  As a citizen, neighbor, 
husband, father, and friend he was a model.  He had reached that age that in a 
sense he could feel that his life work was done.  He had lived to see his 
children grow up to be useful and respected citizens in the community.  

Many of his early friends have passed over Jordan.  He had made an enviable 
reputation for himself, and he was not left to lag superfluous on the stage of 
life.  Friend Spaulding: 

You have finished your journey of many miles,
With heart that was true, dear friend.
Your days of tears and days of smiles;
And now you have come to the end.

There was many a toil and many a slip,
And many a day’s wild weather.
But you clasped our hand in a firmer grip,
And hearts beat truer together.

But what would you say, if one should ask,
As we stand here now at the end –
Would you live it again? Would you live it again?
Oh, what would you say, dear friend?”

As was said on another occasion:
“Farewell!  I know not what the future has in store for you, but I feel that 
you have entered upon that higher arena, which the soul lives to contemplate 
and speculate upon, and that there, the Great Supervisor will assign you your 
proper place.

Among the inscrutable things on earth and which assures us that we have a 
mortgage on eternity, which our good friend and faithful attorney, death, will 
in due time foreclose, is, that we who mourn have faith in the future.  
Although it is a blank that must be ?? by the grave, which has its foundations 
laid partly in other fields than those of earth; and when we emerge ??  
the  ??  light of the other side, all will be made plain.”

The life of Jerry Spaulding is a part of the pioneer history of Ionia county 
and his kindness to his business associates, friends and neighbors will always 
be remembered.


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