Andrew F. Spence

I've blogged about the Spence connection before. But where the father of Sulmana "Frances" Spence Nace came from has been a family mystery for decades. It's documented that Andrew F. Spence married Mary Lucy Goff, daughter of Archibald Goff, on Dec. 19, 1849. She was about  sixteen. During the course of their marriage, they had ten children. Here's the list from the family Bible:

• John Henry Spence Born De  24 1850
• Edward [Lott?] Spence Born Feb 10 1853
• William [G?] Spence Born Feb  3 1855
• Mary [?]Spence Born De 5 1859
• Alexzander [?] A. Spence Born June 8 1863
• Selmenia F. Spence Born De 14 1864
• Daniel [might be David?] M. Spence Born June 12 1867
• Lucie Jane Spence Born De 9 1869
• Walter F. Spence Born July 9 1875
• one infant Boy Born Apr 11 1858

The Spences were said to be from the Big Island area of Bedford County, and indeed, many are still there. But Andrew F. Spence didn't seem to connect to them. Why not?

On September 7, 1860, 33-year-old Andrew, 27-year-old Lucy, their sons John H (age 9), Edward J (age 6), and William A (age 3), and their 4-month-old daughter Mary C.S. were living in the northern district (Lone Pine Post Office) of Bedford County. John was attending school. Also in their household was 30-year-old Mary Sweeney, whose vocation was "serving." Was she employed by the Spences, or was she somehow kin? 

A close look at the 1860 census reveals that Andrew was a stone mason who was born in New York and that his personal estate was worth $200.

Perhaps, being born in New York, he wasn't close kin to the Spences who were already  in Virginia. 

Andrew served in Company C of the 58th Virginia Infantry in the Confederate army—the Big Island Greys (Chilton's/Arthur's Company) of Bedford County. The ten companies in the 58th were from Amherst, Franklin, Patrick, and Rockbridge Counties. The regiment was with General Jubal Early to defend Lynchburg in mid-June 1864. Andrew must have gotten leave a few times, since Alexander was born in 1863 and Frances in 1864.

In the August 18, 1870, census for the Liberty Post Office area of Charlemont in the Northwest section of Bedford County, the family had increased. Now 4-year-old "Sylwina" (who'd later be known as Frances), 2-year-old Daniel, and baby Lucy had joined the family. John, who'd likely started his own family, was no longer living with his parents. What became of Alexander? He likely died young.

By June 2, 1880,  Andrew and Lucy, along with their 15-year-old daughter Frances had moved to Buchanan in Botetourt County. Son William—now married to a Mary (who is 3 years older than he) and  has three sons (Alonzo-4, Jessie-2, and baby Ira)—either lives with his parents or lives next door. William has apparently followed his father into the stone mason business. But what became of little Daniel and Lucy and Walter and the unnamed baby? Had the Spence family lost four young children in a 10-year period? Five in a 15-year-period? At any rate, half their children didn't survive until adulthood.

Living in Buchanan, Frances was now in a good position to meet William Robert Nace. They were married on December 28, 1882.

Census records aren't available for 1890, so tracing the Spence family isn't easy. Andrew and Lucy don't appear on the 1900 census. However, their son does—a 45-year-old William  Spence and his 48-year old wife Mary are living in Forest in Bedford County. He now is a farmer and owns his land. They have four children at home: Maud, Walter, Bell, and Edgar. 

Also, in 1900, a 47-year-old stone mason named Lott Spence lives at Charlemont in Bedford County with his 42-year-old wife Mollie T, and son and daughter. His brother-in-law, Robert Goff, lives with them. Could Lott be Edward Lott, born in 1853? It seems likely. And there's another Goff connection.

So, part of the Spence mystery  is solved. But there are still some unanswered questions.

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Update: Recently, thanks to the Internet and Ancestry.com, I learned that his name was actually Andrew Frederick Spence, and he was born on December 1, 1829 (or possibly 1827) in Orange County, New York. I also learned his parents' names: John Frederick Spence (who was born in Orange County, New York) and Mary Catherine Andrews.


This makes sense. He got his middle name from his father, and he named his first son John Harrison Goff, likely John for his father. Andrew's wife was Mary Lucy Goff—the daughter of Polly Harrison and Archibald Goff, so that accounts for the Harrison middle name. His first daughter, actually his fourth child, was named Mary Catherine (1858-1879)—his mother's name.


Despite being from the north, Andrew served in Company C of the 58th Virginia Infantry—the Big Island Greys (Chilton's/Arthur's Company of Bedford County. The ten companies in the 58th were from Amherst, Franklin, Patrick, and Rockbridge Counties. The regiment was with General Jubal Early to defend Lynchburg in mid-June 1864. Andrew must have gotten leave a few times, since Alexander was born in 1863 and Frances in 1864.

I was able to find his death certificate online (he died April 18, 1912 of "Euremic convulsion"), and now I know he is buried in Lithia Baptist Church Cemetery, where his Nace in-laws and some of his descendants are buried.

 

 

He was still alive when his granddaughter Annie Pearl Nace died mysteriously in July of the previous year. That must have been hard on my great grandmother, Frances Spence Nace, to lose a child one year and her father the next.

ANOTHER MYSTERY: I can't find his grave listed in Lithia Baptist Church Cemetery. Nor can I find out when his wife died or where she is buried.

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Last Nace Grandchild

Bill Gross, the last living grandchild of William and Frances Nace, died on March 22, 2014. In the picture below, his grandfather is holding him. His grandmother is at the far left and Uncle T.O. Hunt is at right.

Bill was the son of Zora William Nace Gross, the youngest Nace daughter. When the picture below was taken of the Nace family in 1902, Zora had not yet been born.

Here is Bill Gross as a baby, held by his cousin Alene Ruble at the Ruble home on Watts Avenue in Roanoke.

Here he is with Alene again on his birthday.  Bill was born March 16, 1930; Alene was born March 17, 1913. No doubt they are celebrating both birthdays. Bill's dog was named "At."

The Gross family lived not far far from the Rubles in the Roanoke's Rugby section before moving to Newport News. Below is Bill's picture as it appeared in his obituary in The Roanoke Times.

From his obituary:

William Claude Gross, 84, of Newport News, died at his home on March 22, 2014, surrounded by family. Bill moved to Newport News at the age of eight when his father came to work at the Newport News Shipyard and the C&O Railroad. He graduated from Newport News High School in February 1948.

As a young man, Bill worked as a delivery boy for Western Union and Colonial Grocery Store in downtown Newport News. While in the United States Air Force from 1950-1954, he served during the Korean Conflict as a radio mechanic on the Douglas B-26 with the 13th Bomb Squadron of the 8th Air Force. After returning from Korea, he followed his father and began a career with the C&O Railroad in 1954, serving as electrician apprentice, and then as Electrician and Electrical Foreman. He retired in 1988 as a General Foreman of the Mechanical Department with CSX Transportation. After retirement, Bill helped his son, Glenn, run his own business and helping repair and maintain equipment.

Read the complete obituary in The Roanoke Times here or in The Daily Press here.

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Nace Graves in Lithia Church

The list of folks buried in Lithia Baptist Church cemetery is online:  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaboteto/lithiabaptistchurchcemeteryregistry.htm

Several Naces are buried there: William Robert Nace and his wife Sulmana (spelled this way on her tombstone, but spelled differently in family Bible) and three of their daughters. Annie Pearl  died mysteriously on July 30, 1911. The date is hard to read on her tombstone.

Another Nace daughter, Cora Hunt, and her husband, Thomas Orren Hunt, are also buried there. Here is a picture of their five children: Claude Nace Hunt (1907-1984), William O. Hunt (1909-1968), Pearl  (1912-1995), Lucas Dennison—called Den (1905-1976) and Elizabeth (1907?-?)

Cora and TO's daughter Pearl Hunt Whorley and her husband, Boyd Conrad Whorley, are buried at Lithia Baptist. Pearl Whorley's daughter Peggy Ann is among other Whorleys buried there. Here's a picture of the six Whorley children:

A third Nace daughter, Ossie and her husband, George Goode, are buried at Lithia, too.

Now here's a mystery. John C. Nace, the father of William Robert Nace, has a stone at Lithia Baptist.
But he's buried beside his wife in the Noftsinger-Styne-Pico cemetery where a more elaborate stone marks his resting place. So where is he?

Now here's a mystery solved: Where was the older brother of John C. Nace buried? Thanks to Find a Grave website, I've found William MacDowell Nace's grave in Maple Grove Cemetery in Kansas.

He was the Nace brother who moved to Kansas and fought for the Union.

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Three Sisters

This picture of three Nace sisters was  probably taken during the late 1960s or early 1970s.

From left to right: Blanche Nace Ruble, Lucy Nace Mays, Ossie Nace Goode.

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Lithia Station

A picture of the train station at Lithia sent to me by my cousin, Bill Gross, whose mother was Zora Nace, the youngest of the Nace sisters. His mother and my grandmother no doubt boarded the train here many times for trips to the big city of Roanoke.

This is a wider angle of the picture I posted on the previous entry.

The station was a Norfolk & Western passenger/freight station. Apparently it didn't change much for decades.

According to Bill, "The picture was taken in 1918, but I remember it as a kid and that is how I remember it too." 

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Lithia, Virginia

The Naces lived in Lithia. This picture, taken during the 1960s, is the lot is where S. Frances and William Robert Nace had their home and raised their daughters Lucy, Blanche, Annie Pearl, Cora, Ossie, and Zora.

The Nace lot

I can remember visiting the house, which had been empty a long time, when I was little. That would have been more than 60 years ago. The picture below, also taken during the 1960s, is labeled on the back "Aunt Fannie's house at Lithia." I'm not sure who Aunt Fannie was or how she was kin.
UPDATE: She was likely Mary Frances "Fannie" Nace Delong, a daughter of John Christian Nace. John lived with her when he was elderly. He died at her house in 1928. On the 1920 census, his is llisted in the Delong household, which was next door to the William Robert Nace household.

Aunt Fannie's House

Lithia is a small town—and former train stop—in Botetourt County, halfway between Nace and Buchanan.

The red spot on the map below marks Lithia, which is just across the Blue Ridge Mountains from Bedford County, on this Google Earth map:

Lithia  received its name from the lithium in the local water. Apparently this mineral water was quite desirable. (Several Naces lived well into their 90s. Did the water they drank had something to do with it?) Here are some posters advertising lithia water—and extolling its virtues— from Buffalo Lithia Springs, which was in Mecklinburg County:

I don't know whether or not the water from Lithia, Virginia, was ever marketed. However, there was a nearby springs where folks came to take the waters and it did ship its water "to all parts of the Union." From the 1877 edition of  Appleton's Illustrated Hand-Book of America Summer Resorts, which you can download free from Google Books, There's this entry

This resort was located along the railroad. The ad continues:

Chataigne's 1888-89 Virginia Directory and Business Directory for Botetourt County, Virginia, contains information about Lithia. Lithia had a distillery (owned by W.S. Hershaw, a general merchant (R.C. Noftsinger & Co.), two corn and flour mills (C.F. Fringer, David Bower), a saw mill (David Bower), and a fruit and vegetable packer (E.J. McCullough). I remember my grandmother (Blanche) telling me that when she was young, she and her sisters worked at the "canning factory." I don't know if it was McCullough's factory or another in the county.

Among Lithia's principal farmers, the directory lists James Falls, P. Kessler, L.C. Lackland, George Kelly, John Fringer, Fulton Fringer, David Bow, E. J. McCulloch,  W.J. Noftsinger, Geo. De Long, W.A. Noftsinger. C.F. Fringer, John Nace, Robt. Goode, J.W. Parr, B. Kessler, J. T. Obenshain, W.H. Kessler, Charles Kessler, and S.S. Young.

I wish I knew more about Lithia.

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The Goff Connection

Our Spence-Nace ancestors are connected to the Goffs. Mary Lucy Goff (daughter of Archibald) married Andrew Frederick Spence on December 19, 1849. Their daughter Sulmana (also spelled Sulminia/Sulmena) Frances Spence married William Robert Nace in 1882. 


Here's the Goff line, starting as far back as I can find documentation:

Willyam Goffe

I

William Goffe (died 1660 in Virginia) & Martha Baxter

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Thomas Goffe (b. 1656; d. after 1720 in Essex Co, VA) & Margaret
(1st wife Martha; 2nd wife Margaret)

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John Goff (1704?- 1763) in Amherst Co, Va) & Ann Tinsley (abt, 1700-1763)

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John Goff, Jr.  (abt. 1745-abt. 1831) & Mary "Polly" (possibly Tittle?)

(2nd wife Priscilla Standley—married Oct. 31, 1782)

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Archibald Goff (1780-abt. 1850) & Mary (Polly) Harrison (married March 29, 1810) 

I

Mary Lucy Goff & Andrew F. Spence (married Dec. 19, 1849)

I

Sulmena* Frances Spence & William Robert Nace
(married Dec. 28, 1882)  

The first Goff in the Amherst/Bedford County, Virginia, area was John, who made a will in 1762. Here's some information about him that I found Bedford County, VA Goffs on the Goff-Gough site:

His son—also named John—was born about 1740 and died in 1831. He was married twice. His first wife, Mary, whom he married about 1760 in Amherst County, was apparently the mother of his two oldest sons: Christopher (who died between 1830 and 1840) and Archibald. Mary was born in 1740 and died before 1782. 

John's second wife, Priscilla Standley (or Stanley), whom he called Prossella in his will, was a Quaker, who was dismissed by the church for marrying outside her faith. The daughter of Pleasant Stanley and Sarah McGhee, Priscilla was born in 1760 in Bedford County and died in 1855.  

Here is a partial list of John's children and their spouses: 

 John Jr. mentions his son Archibald in his will:

More info about John's will: 

 Archibald, born about 1780 in Bedford, Virginia, was apparently married to a Sallie (?) before he married Polly Harrison, daughter of Battaile Harrison and Frances Tinsley, on March 29, 1810. Polly's line runs deep into old Virginia:

Although I can't find his exact death date, Archibald was 70 years old at the time of the 1850 Bedford census. His occupation listed him as farmer. It is likely that Polly was the mother of Mary Lucy Goff, since Mary  married to Andrew F. Spence in 1849 and thus would likely have been born several years after 1810. Mary's daughter named her eldest daughter Mary Lucy.

Many of the early Bedford County Goffs lived on Goff Mountain:

After her marriage, Mary would most likely have lived with her husband in nearby Big Island, Virginia, also in Bedford County. In the map below, "A" marks Goff Mountain; Big Island, on the James River, is at the right. (You can see Big Island if you click the picture to enlarge it.) At some point, they moved to Buchanan in Botetourt County.

Andrew F. Spence and Mary Lucy Goff Spence moved from Bedford County to Buchanan in 

Botetourt County, Virginia, when their daughter Sulmana "Frances" was fifteen. That is likely where Frances met Robert William Nace.

Frances and William would eventually live in Lithia in Botetourt County. As the crow flies, Big Island is only 14 miles from Buchanan (near Lithia). By twisting mountain roads, the distance would be much longer.

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