Spear Family

Born in Chautauqua County, New York, on 1816 July 1, Dr. David Osborn Spear was oldest son of the twelve children born to John (1788-1886) and Polly Osborn (1796-1840) Spear. David married Margaret Conner on 1840 August 15 in Kosciusko County, Indiana, and they had seven children: John, Harriet (who married Vincent Gray), Louisa, Jane, Charles, George, and Sonora (who married William Collins). The family moved to Michigan and Iowa and by 1860 resided in Texas. David Spear was among the first doctors sent by the government to treat Indians. He was also one of the founders of Weatherford, Texas; helped lay out the town square; and was the first County Recorder. His oldest son, John Nelson Spear, was a Texas Ranger on the mission that rescued Cynthia Ann Parker from the Comanches. David Osborn Spear died at Fort McKavett, Texas, on 1874 March 14.

John Nelson Spear, a younger brother of David Osborn Spear, was born on 1818 August 6. According to a letter he wrote to David, John arrived in California on 1849 October 15. He eventually settled in San Francisco, where he worked in an undertaker’s casket shop. John Nelson Spear committed suicide on 1856 December 16 after a bout of depression.

Moses Spear, another son of John and Polly Spear, was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, on 1834 May 4. He married Cicely Ellen Ashworth on 1865 January 29; the couple had nine children. Moses Spear and his family lived in Ravenwood, Nodaway County, Missouri, on land originally pre-empted by his father. Moses Spear died in Ravenwood on 1923 July 6.

Hannah Ely Spear, John and Polly Spear’s eighth child, was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, on 1829 July 23. She lived with her parents and brother Moses in Ravenwood, Missouri. Hannah took on the responsibility of caring for her father after her mother’s death in 1840 and remained in Ravenwood until her father’s death in 1886. At that time she moved to live with her brother Willis and his family, first in Wyoming and later in Montana, where she died on 1905 December 14 at the age of seventy-seven.

Willis Bradford Spear, Hannah Spear’s older brother, was born in Chautauqua County, New York, on 1824 January 12, shortly before his family moved to Ohio. The Spear family later relocated to Indiana, and Willis left for Iowa around the age of nineteen. From there he went to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he hired on as a quartermaster with the U.S. Army. Willis fought in the Mexican War and was severely wounded. In 1849, he trekked to San Antonio, Texas, and joined a group heading to California. He reached San Francisco in 1849 November and bought the first lot on what would be called Spear Street. Willis married Jane Ferguson Wood at Niles, Michigan, on 1853 October 18. They eventually had eight children: Ocianna, Mary Catherine (who married Paul J. McCormick, the “Grand Old Man of Montana”), John F., Charles Richard Ely, Willis Moses, Emily Leroy, Hullett William, and Annie. Willis and his family moved to Iowa; then to Nodaway County, Missouri, where his siblings and father were living; and then to Atchison County, Missouri. Later, Willis and his family resided in Montana and Wyoming, where he died at the age of eighty-eight on 1912 October 8.

References

Spear Family Papers, 1839-1997, Col 10231, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.