BIO:  W. A. Spate, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Shrewsbury Township, Pg 183

W. A. SPATE, a son of Joseph Spate, and a resident of Loganville, York County, was born in 
Springfield Township, near Glen Rock, York County, June 19, 1851.  He is on his mother’s side 
of English and Scotch ancestry, and of German on his father’s.  His father’s parents immigrated 
to this country about sixty or seventy ago from Wittemburg, Germany.  They were very 
unfortunate on the first vessel, having lost all their money through the captain of the vessel, 
who, instead of landing them on the coast of the United States, landed them somewhere on the 
coast of Europe.  They took passage for America on another vessel bound for the United States.  
At that time the practice prevailed of selling the service of such passengers who could not pay 
their passage-money, to such persons in this country who would pay their expenses for them.  
The grandparents of Mr. Spate were among this number, and their services were secured by a Mr. 
Patterson, of Hopewell Township, for whom they worked for some time.  Afterward they began 
farming for themselves.  Their son Joseph received but a limited education, and made a 
livelihood by day laboring and carpentering.  He served in the army about a year during the 
late civil war and died at home after the close of the war, in the winter of 1867, when his son 
was nearly sixteen years of age.  W. A. Spate was then obliged to not only support himself, but 
had also a widowed mother and an invalid sister depending upon him.  In the fall of 1867 he 
began teaching.  After the close of the term he worked in the Feigley Ore Banks, where he was 
engaged as a cart driver for nearly three years, and then taught school again.  After the close 
of the second term he again began work in the ore banks and was soon promoted to the position 
of clerk and weighmaster, which position he occupied until the fall of 1873, when the panic 
began.  He again entered the schoolroom and taught successfully each year until the fall of 
1884, when he entered the newspaper office of The Item, in Glen Rock, Penn., and in December of 
the same year he became a partner with Capt. N. Z. Seitz, in the publication of The Item and 
The Monitor, the first a weekly newspaper, and the second a literary and educational monthly, 
of which Mr. Spate is assistant editor.  Mr. Spate had few educational advantages, being 
obliged to leave the common school soon after the death of his father, and before he was 
sixteen.  He studied and read during his spare time, and often worked out problems in 
arithmetic while driving cart in the ore banks.  After some years of study he secured a 
professional certificate and afterward a permanent certificate.  December 25, 1879, he married 
Miss Sarah C. Fry, daughter of David Fry, of Loganville.