Wood County, West Virginia Biography of HORATIO M. SPENCE This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 527-528 HORATIO M. SPENCE, who has been a resident of Parkers- burg, West Virginia, since the autumn of 1897, was born in New Jersey, reared in Michigan, and lived in Pennsylvania during the earlier period of his active business career. In the Keystone State he long continued his association with business pertaining to the oil-producing industry, and in West Virginia he has become a prosperous representative of the same line of enterprise, as a dealer in oil-well tools and supplies, his well equipped business establishment in the City of Parkersburg being situated at 116-20 Ann Street. Mr. Spence was born at Paterson, New Jersey, on the 24th of June, 1852, and is a son of Archibald and Mary (Ackerman) Spence. Archibald Spence was born and reared in Scot- land, and was there educated for the ministry of the Presby- terian Church. As a Presbyterian clergyman he had given active service in his native land, but after coming to the United States, as a young man in 1822, he devoted the major part of his time and attention to mercantile pursuits. About the time of the inception of the Civil war Mr. Spence removed with his family to Michigan and established his home near Hillsdale, judicial center of the county of the same name. Upon coming to this country he immediately took the steps which gained to him full citizenship in the land of his adop- tion, and, as a man of fine intellect and high ideals, he became an implacable adversary of the institution of human slavery. his attitude in this respect being such that he became known as a "black abolitionist" in the climacteric period that cul- minated in the Civil war. He united with the republican party at the time of its organization, and ever afterward con- tinued a stanch supporter of its principles. He continued an earnest and zealous worker in the Presbyterian Church until his death, in 1875, and as a clergyman his services were in frequent demand. He was a resident of Michigan until the close of his life, and his widow survived him by a quarter of a century, she having passed to eternal rest in 1900, when venerable in years. Not until late in life did Archibald Spence take unto him- self a wife, in the person of Miss Mary Ackerman, who was of remote Holland Dutch ancestry. Of their six children two daughters and one son (subject of this sketch) are living at the time of this writing, in 1921. One son, John A., whose death occurred within recent years, served as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, he having been a mem- ber of a New Jersey regiment, and wounds that he received at the battle of Gettysburg having resulted in the loss of one of his hands. Horatio M. Spence was about eight years of age at the time of the family removal to Hillsdale County, Michigan, where he was reared on his father's farm and attended the district schools during the winter months, this discipline having been supplemented by two terms of study in a local high school. When about nineteen years of age Mr. Spence went to Titusville, Pennsylvania, and found employment in the oil fields of that section of the Keystone State. He was con- nected with several different companies for varying inter- vals, and by one of these corporations was made superin- tendent. For fourteen years he maintained his home at Bradford, Pennsylvania, while still continuing his active association with oil-producing enterprise, and there in 1886 was solemnized his marriage with Miss Dora S. Davis. In 1893 Mr. Spence, following in the course of further oil develop- ment in the Keystone State, removed to Butler, to which place his family followed him in the succeeding year. At Butler, Pennsylvania, he became associated with the firm of Carothers, Peters & Company, manufacturers of oil-well tools and dealers in oil-well supplies. In 1892, while still residing at Bradford, Pennsylvania, Mr. Spence organized at Parkersburg, West Virginia, the firm of Spence & Smith, which later was reorganized as the Spence, Smith & Kootz Company and which developed a substantial business in the handling of oil-well supplies. In the autumn of 1897 Mr. Spence transferred his residence to Parkersburg, and since 1915 he has been the sole owner of the business formerly conducted under the corporate title noted above. He was the founder of the business, which has long been one of broad scope, the trade extending into the various oil fields of West Virginia and its successful conducting marking Mr. Spence as one of the representative business men of Parkersburg. In this thriving city he is an active member of Board of Com- merce, and he holds membership also in the local Kiwanis Club and the Parkersburg Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. While a resident of Bradford, Pennsylvania, he served as a member of the City Council and also.as a member of the Board of Education. He is a republican in politics and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Spence is a daughter of the late Uriah L. Davis, who was born in 1812 and who was for many years engaged in the lumber business in the State of New York, at Chatham and Angelica. Uriah L. Davis was a son of Jonathan and a grandson of John Davis, the latter of whom was born in Columbia County, New York, in 1737. Prior to the war of the Revolution John Davis served as a lieutenant of the English militia in New York, bis com- mission having been signed by Governor Tryon of New York. When the Revolution came John Davis became a patriot soldier in the Continental Line, in which he became a captain and did active service in the cause of national inde- pendence. His original commission, signed by Governor Tryon, and his late commissions as first lieutenant and as captain in the Continental forces, are now in the possession of Mr. Spence of this sketch, who places high value on these historic documents. Uriah L. Davis recruited and equipped the Eighty-fifth New York Volunteer Infantry for service in the Civil war, and by Governor Morgan was commissioned colonel of this regiment, but impaired health prevented bis being in active service save during the opening period of the war. His only son, Edward, became a lieutenant in the father's regiment and sacrificed his life in the service of his country. Mr. and Mrs. Spence became the parents of two children: Davis A., who died in 1914, at the age of twenty-five years; and Lile Patty, who is the wife of Charles A. Ludey, of Parkersburg, their one child being a daughter, Emma Suzanne.