Martha Ann Spencer

b. 1844 · Alto, Cherokee County, Texas

Born 1844, Mississippi

Children include Charles

Martha Ann Spencer was born in Mississippi in April 1844 and came to Texas as a small child. In 1850 a girl of her name and age was living at Rusk in Cherokee County, in the house of W. M. and Amanda Spencer, a Tennessee couple with three children born in Mississippi. Ten years later she was sixteen and still in Cherokee County, in a household headed by a widowed A. S. Spencer.

On 12 November 1866, as Mattie A. Spencer, she married J. W. Thomas in Cherokee County. He was an Alabama man of thirty six, fourteen years older than she was. They made their home at Douglass in Nacogdoches County, where their daughter Annie Adline was born the following August. In 1880 the household held five children under thirteen.

Her husband died on 22 January 1899 and was buried at Douglass. In 1900 she was a widow, still in the same corner of Nacogdoches County, with four of her grown children at home. She had borne seven and six were living. Her son Charles was twenty seven and single that year, and still in her house.

She outlived her husband by many years. In September 1918, when Charles registered for the draft at Alto, a widower of forty five with young children, he wrote her name down as his nearest relative: Martha Ann Thomas, of Alto. She was seventy four. Two of her sons, Charles and William, had settled there, a few miles over the county line from where she had raised them.

Children

Charles Benjamin Thomas 1872-1939

Sources

United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Cherokee County, Texas, serial 808, order 3799. CHARLES BENJAMIN THOMAS, permanent home address Alto, Cherokee, Texas; age in years 45; date of birth Sept 19, 1872; native born citizen; present occupation CLERK IN STORE; employer's name M. J. HOGAN; place of employment Alto, Cherokee, Texas. NEAREST RELATIVE, name: MARTHA ANN THOMAS, address Alto, Cherokee, Texas, with the relationship abbreviated ahead of the name in his hand and reading as mother. Signed Charles Benjamin Thomas. Registrar's report: medium height, eyes gray, hair black. Registered 9/12/18. FamilySearch carries the same relative's name in its own image index for the draft card, so it does not rest on a reading of the hand alone.

The Alto Herald, Alto, Texas, 14 July 1939, page 1, "C. B. Thomas Died Suddenly Wednesday" (Portal to Texas History, ark:/67531/metapth214956, page 1).

United States Census 1880, Douglass, Nacogdoches County, Texas, ED 48, sheet 208D (FamilySearch 1:1:MFJ3-JNR, image 3:1:33SQ-GYB6-8WM). The mother is entered as Martha D. and her birthplace as Michigan.

United States Census 1900, Justice Precinct 2, Nacogdoches County, Texas, ED 42, sheet 4A, household 67 (FamilySearch 1:1:M3P5-H54).

Texas death certificate of Annie Adline Wortham, Nacogdoches, 19 November 1941 (FamilySearch 1:1:K394-N5B).

Texas death record of Mary C. Ferguson (FamilySearch 1:1:K37X-7L5).

Texas, County Marriage Records: Cherokee County, volumes C2-E, J. W. Thomas and Mattie A. Spencer, 12 November 1866 (FamilySearch 1:1:VK1G-492).

United States Census 1850, Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas, dwelling 422 (FamilySearch 1:1:MXLV-VQP, image 3:1:S3HT-6MHS-X77); United States Census 1860, Beat 2, Cherokee County, Texas, page 56 (FamilySearch 1:1:MXFP-RZ1, image 3:1:33S7-9BSC-969K).

United States Census 1880, Precinct No. 2, Nacogdoches County, Texas, ED 48, page 16, lines 41 to 47 (FamilySearch image 3:1:33SQ-GYB6-8WM).

Draft registration of Charles Benjamin Thomas, Cherokee County, 12 September 1918; United States Census 1880, Douglass, Nacogdoches County, Texas, ED 48, sheet 208D (FamilySearch 1:1:MFJ3-JNR, image 3:1:33SQ-GYB6-8WM); United States Census 1900, Justice Precinct 2, Nacogdoches County, Texas, ED 42, sheet 4A, household 67 (FamilySearch 1:1:M3P5-H54); Texas death certificate of Annie Adline Wortham, Nacogdoches, 19 November 1941 (FamilySearch 1:1:K394-N5B); Texas death record of Mary C. Ferguson (FamilySearch 1:1:K37X-7L5); The Alto Herald, Alto, Texas, 14 July 1939, page 1, "C. B. Thomas Died Suddenly Wednesday" (Portal to Texas History, ark:/67531/metapth214956, page 1); Texas, County Marriage Records: Cherokee County, volumes C2-E, J. W. Thomas and Mattie A. Spencer, 12 November 1866 (FamilySearch 1:1:VK1G-492); United States Census 1850, Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas, dwelling 422 (FamilySearch 1:1:MXLV-VQP, image 3:1:S3HT-6MHS-X77); United States Census 1860, Beat 2, Cherokee County, Texas, page 56 (FamilySearch 1:1:MXFP-RZ1, image 3:1:33S7-9BSC-969K); Texas death certificate of Mary C. Ferguson, Douglass, Nacogdoches County, 8 June 1927 (FamilySearch 1:1:K37X-7L5).

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Cite: Heirology, "Martha Ann Spencer (b. 1844)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/martha-ann-spencer-1844-fecb98.