CYRUS SPENCE

WORSHIPFUL MASTER MASTER

SPRING HILL MASONIC LODGE

1866 & 1867 & 1868

Cyrus W Spence married Mary J Onstott in 1855…and  1873 Sallie French, both in Navarro Co TX

Andrew Spence, born 1774  County Antrim, North Ireland, had come to America and settled in Newberry Co. SC.   His children were Esther, Robert, Ann, Thomas, and Grizanna  by his first marriage…Jennet, Mary, James, Andrew, and William by the second.

The Spence family was found in early North Carolina where David Spence witnessed the 1788 sale of a slave girl whose name was Lucy.  The family migrated to the new settlement near Augusta, Georgia in the late 1700s and, apparently, migrated to Kentucky and into Illinois.    One Spence family had arrived at Robertson's Colony in Texas in the 1830s.    

Union County, Illinois and neighbor counties had been settled after the Civil War with many veterans from the south were offered and accepted  one hundre sixty “Soldier Acres”      Col. Nash and men of  his regiment from South Carolina were among them.    Names of the Illinois settlers included Sawyer, Ward, Turner, Spence,  Roberts, Evans, Scroggins, Owens, Davis, Fread, Vinson, Onstatt, ….and probably many more who names later associated with the Black Land of Western Navarro County, Texas

John Graham died and his widow, Eunicy, married Austin Ward

Jane Scroggins married John Vinson…then John Davis

Minerva Vinson, dau of John and Jane

Married William Spence of Macaupin IL…he died 1852

Married Dempsey Daniel Sawyer…1857…he died Navarro Co 1913

He was son of Jesse  & Ruthie Sawyer from Tyrell Co NC

Evan Roberts b1807  lived Bedford TN in 1820…right where the Turners lived.

1840 he lived Montgomery Co IL…..died in Dawson TX

Isaac Spence was listed in the 1850 Census of Navarro Co.   Isaac, apparently, had received a Land Patent for acreage several miles southeast of Spring Hill near the Onstatt brothers, the Wilsons, and others who lived on "The Black Land."

The family moved to the land and five years later, 1855, Cyrus Spence married Mary J Onstatt. He obtained a NavCo Cattle Brand in 1860.   Cyrus Spence  and Nicholas Spence served the CSA in Dresden's Texas Cavalry.     Nathan Spence served under the command of one of the Fouty brothers, also from Illinois, and who lived nearby.

L W Spence married another of the Onstatt daughters, Missouri Onstatt in 1861.   L W Spence obtained a NavCo Cattle Brand.

Miss Martha C Spence married G H Wilson in Navco 1866.   Ed E Bowman performed the ceremony.

Jane C. Spence            married William Cook NavCo  1871

J T Spence was listed in NavCo 1860

Adline Spence married W A Key in NavCo 1872

M J Spence (f)            married J T George in NavCo  1873

David Upton Spence  1840-1907 married Elizabeth "Bettie" Dawson in 1866.    Elizabeth Dawson was born 1846 at Franklin, Texas to Brit Dawson and his first wife, Elizabeth Walker.   The children of David and Elizabeth include Sally, Annie Lee, Amanda, Mary Louise, Alvin (Bud), David, and Jane.   Marriage relationships of the children were Boyd, Frasier, Hubbard, Zeanon, Reagan, Whitner.

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Notes:

• Submitted by Carl W. Matthews - Dec 2004