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A man named Allen Spencer
By: Brenda Collins Dillon
Allen Spencer was born April 18, 1817 at or near Keister,on the Greenbrier River, WV. He was the third child of James and Elizabeth Haptonstall Spencer.
As a young man Allen served as a bodyguard for Fransis Ludington, who owned a large acreage north of Frankfort,WV. The Ludington'swere a wealthy slave holding family. Mr Ludington kept several bags of gold coins in a dresser drawer in his bedroom where Allen slept on a pallet between his employer's bed and the door. One day one of themoney bags was missing and Mr. Ludington hotly accused Allen of stealing it, but it was later found where it had fallen beneath the drawers.
One summer Mr. Ludington decided to sell some of his slaves, and his foreman was instructed toget them ready for the jorney. He took his black snake whip from it's peg on the wall and rounded up the boys and girls who were 16 to 18 years of age and started over the road to Cincinnati to be taken down the Mississippi River to be sold. The screaming youngesters were given no time totake leave ofthe whip. Allen was so hurt by this inhuman treatment that he yelled tothe slave driver, "Something terrible will happen to you". The slaves were sold but on the way back the foreman was taken ill with a dread disease called "Black Death" and choked with his tounge protruding from his mouth.
On December 31, 1846 Allen married Polly Clendenin Knapp. Early in 1847 they began life in their new home on Fork Mountain near the presant town of Richwood,WV.These early pioneer settlers were a sturdy hardworking people. They cleared the land, grew their food , made their clothes, traded for their needs. If they were poor they never knew it. On his farm of 200 acres, Allen and Polly reared 10 children, six sons and four daughters.
Allen Spencer was a energetic man and devoutly religious.He believed firmly in the power of prayer. His sons told their children about these experiences of how prayers were answered. One autum Allen needed seedwheat to complete the fall sowing. He knew that his good friend and neighbor, Allen McClung, who lived on the other side of Cold Knob, some 25 miles away, had plenty, so he sat out to get a couple bushels. However, Allen had no money so he took with him his trusty rife in hopes to get a deer or something in which to trade for the wheat seed. He did not get anything but when he rode up to his friends house the friend came out and invited him to get off his horse and spend the night.He also said "I have some wheat seed which I wish to give you."
In the dark days of the Civil War, Allen would go into the woods to pray, where he could be alone with God. Once he came in from his prayers so happy he was shouting. His wife Polly ask why he was so happy. He said, " God has just revealed to me the end of the war" It came soon after according to the revelation.
How truly greatful, we, his descendants are, for the Christian heritage. God grant that we may live according to the example which he sat for us.
When Allen died his body was laid to rest on the hill in what is now South Richwood, on the farm of his son Ben.When Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company bought the farms of the Spencer brothers the bodies buried there were removed to the little church cemetery on Hinkle Mountain. |
