Thomas Spilman
October 20, 1884 -April 22, 1967 Clear Lake, IA
Thomas was the forth child of
Dan and Thea Spilman. His older
brother, Ned, died at about 6 months of age.
Tom's daughter, Alice Spilman,
recounted a story of Tom playing with fire as a kid. They had a farm building
with a board ceiling with spaces in between the boards. They hay used to hang
down between the gaps. Tom used to go in the building and light the hay hanging
down and attempt to grab it with his hand to put it out. One time it got away
from him and he burnt down 3 buildings. His father Daniel warned him not to play
with fire but did nothing else. Alice said that within a few days Tom and
one of his siblings had a bunch of dead grass and they decided to safely burn it
by putting it in a pile with dirt around it and igniting it. Once Dan found out
Tom had defied him by playing with fire he was given a "wailing". Alice said
they thought it was something that he wasn't punished at all for burning
buildings down but for lighting a safe fire instead.
As a young adult Tom moved out to
South Dakota. We know that Tom was in Faith, South Dakota in 1913 since
there are photos and references to him in a book called "Faith Country
1910-1960". There are also photos of his mother, Thea Spilman, and his
sister Kate which show they had also gone to South Dakota to visit Tom.
Faith is almost 600 miles west of Clear Lake, IA.
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From the introduction of the book:
"It was 1890 -- the Cheyenne Indian Reservation boundary
was moved east to its present line and the territory to the west was opened for
settlement. It wasn't until the first decade of the century when the
railroad started building westward that the new country attracted attention.
This news loosed a flood of migrant workers, home seekers, adventurers, and not
a few searchers for the rainbow's end. Numerous mail drop and small
settlements, boasting a Post Office, had been established in the region before
and during this period, but the allure of a railroad town fascinated the
newcomers. By every means of transportation, hordes of enterprising
pioneers reached Faith and its environs and decided this was the place. It
was 1910...Nineteen hundred and ten was a year of bubbling optimism -- capturing
the imagination of all: everyone was young in those days and everything was fun
in a country that was new and exciting. The land of opportunity lay before
them and each owned a part of it. Long trains of immigrant cars arrived
daily -- almost every quarter of land was claimed and occupied and it was free."
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Deane Spilman said that at
first his father, Tom, worked for a cattle rancher in South Dakota. One
day Tom's boss got into an argument with a sheep rancher and his boss told the
sheep rancher that he had
"seen better women than his come out of whore houses". The sheep rancher
responded by shooting Tom's boss dead. Tom was standing there by him when
this happened!
Faith, SD looked like a classic
Western sort of town:
In the front a man checks his wagon wheel and in
the distance is a Rail Road train.
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Here is an article written January 18, 1913:
"DOUBLE WEDDING IN DESERTED BARN
Marriage under difficulties on the frontier, is recorded in the story of two
young couples who had planned a double wedding in Perkins County. The
contracting parties were Prudence Escott and Dan Meckling, and Esther Escott and
Emil Gubbin. The invited guests gathered at the home of the brides'
parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Escott, but the minister failed to appear. The
afternoon wore on, the feast was losing its savor, and most of the guests had
gone home. George Escott, Jr. and Tom Spilman rode to Brayton after a
Justice of Peace, but he declined to come. Next day the two couples
accompanied by Miss Martha Hennessy and Frank Tatroe, who were to act as
attendants, drove to Faith, to have the ceremony performed there.
Since the licenses were issued in Perkins County,
a Meade County Justice could not officiate. Friday afternoon the wedding
party drove out to the homestead of a local minister - incidentally, the same
one who had promised to be on hand at the Escott home for ceremony, but who
didn't come because he couldn't find his horse. The minister was persuaded
to cross over the county line for the marrying. The first house they
reached proved to be one on an unoccupied farm and the house was locked so tight
they couldn't break in. Whereupon, the wedding party adjourned to an old
tumbled-down barn on the premises, and with the wind howling and snow blowing
through the cracks of the old building, the minister, wrapped in his overcoat
and wearing mittens, tied the respective knots.
The young couples started housekeeping on the
respective claims of the bridegrooms."
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Back
row: Mrs. Heeron, Mrs. Alden, Laura Alden.
Front: Mrs. (Thea) Spilman (Tom's mother), Mrs. Miller and George Miller.
This photo would have been taken
between 1913-1917. Dan is not pictured and so it is not clear if this
photo was after his death or not. Kate was in South Dakota in 1913 -
perhaps she came with her mother. Tom was close to Jack Alden ( below) and
his family (pictured to the right with Thea).
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Life was not easy in South Dakota. In the
book Faith Country it says,
"The hardy soul who came early and stayed, had the courage and perseverance of a
champion, the nerve and audacity of a deep sea diver and the imaginative
boldness of an astronaut -- they lived on a trapeze -- swinging from the depths
to the heights, always undaunted. Those who left because of economic or
other reasons, but lived here long enough to become tempered by the seasons and
the camaraderie of the people, inevitably feel the clutching pang of
homesickness and return, if only for a brief visit."
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Tom met and married his wife
Winnie Fry in South Dakota. Her father, Jerome Fry, worked on the Railroad
there and had a homestead. Winnie was born in Topeka, KS and their family
moved to Pembine, WI then later to South Dakota and finally Appleton, WI.
Winnie and Tom were both Methodist like Daniel Spilman from England, but Winnie
would later become Seventh Day Advent as would some of their children.
The couple married January 09, 1918 in Dupree, SD about 22 miles east of Faith.
Tom farmed the land and lived in a sod house.
It appears Tom felt the hardships
described in the Faith Country article as he did return to Clear Lake, IA where
the farm land was much more productive. After his father died in
1915, Tom inherited
76 acres. Tom's son Deane said that 8
parcels of land of approximately 80 acres were placed in a hat for each of Dan's
children to draw. Deane said that Tom and another of his brothers agreed
to change their drawn parcels with each other. Tom let his homestead in South
Dakota go for the property taxes sometime after 1918 and he returned to Clear
Lake to farm.
1959 Spilman
family photo
Back: Deane Spilman, Fritz & Mary Gobeli, Jerry Gobeli, Alice
Spilman, Norma & Dewey Howell, Tom Spilman.
2nd row : Lori, Bette & Jayne Spilman, Tom Gobeli, Winnie Spilman,
Ronny Gobeli.
Front row: Debra Spilman, Lynn Howell, Thomas Deane Spilman.
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This photo was thought to have
been taken for one of Tom and Winnie's wedding anniversaries. Possibly
the 25th anniversary which would have been 1943.
Winnie was diabetic and died in her sleep from
the disease early on Christmas mroning 1962.
Tom never returned to Faith, SD. He
kept the book Faith Country with many bookmarks in it. He died April
22, 1967 in Mason City, IA
Death Certificate (pdf file) |
From the Clear Lake Mirror - Reporter Wed
April 26, 1967
WEDNESDAY RITES FOR TOM SPILMAN
Funeral services were held today (Wednesday) at 2 p.m. in the Ward Funeral
Home for Tom Spilman, 82, a former Clear Lake Farmer. He died Saturday at a
Mason City nursing home.
Elder E. W. Boggess, pastor of Seventh-day Adventist Church, Mason City
officiated. Burial was in the Clear Lake Cemetery.
Thomas Spilman was born on a farm south of Clear Lake Oct. 20, 1884. He was
the son of Daniel and Thea Spilman and lived here until 1910 when he moved
to Faith, S. D. He was married to Winnie Frye on Jan 9, 1918 and they
returned to Clear Lake in 1919 to a farm home a mile from the home place.
He made his home with his son, Deane, in Mason City following the death of
his wife in 1962. A month ago, he entered the nursing home after a brief
stay in a Mason City hospital.
He is survived by his son, Deane; three daughters, Mrs. Fritz (Mary) Gobeli; Mrs. Dewey (Norma) Howell and Alice Spilman, all of Mason City; a brother
Dan, Clear Lake; Mrs. Chester (Kate) Johnson, Sturgis, S.D., and Mrs. Clare
(Lillie) Holmes, Nora Springs; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Winnie; a son, Thomas Leroy, at six
months; a daughter, Winnie Arlene, at 6 years of age; two brothers, Alex and
Harry, and a sister Mrs. George (Minnie) Hughs. Pallbearers were Dale, Sam
and Lloyd Spilman, Ashton Hugh, Duane Holmes and Donald Eastman. Jack Bull
was soloist and Mrs. Bull, the organist. Mrs. Walter Wood and Mrs. William
Oxley were in charge of flowers.
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Tom and Winnie had 4 surviving children
Photo 1985, left to right:
Mary Maxine Spilman November 02, 1922- February
19, 2003 Mason City, IA married 1 Glenn Broom, 2 Fritz (Frederick) Gobeli
Deane Ellsworth Spilman October 26, 1920 - May 29, 1998
married 1 Bette Blahnik, 2 Shirley Grover.
Alice Spilman September 03, 1926-February 05, 2016
Clear Lake, IA
Norma Jean Spilman (Dewey (Paul) Howell)
Winnie and Tom's oldest son, Thomas Leroy, was
said to have been born in South Dakota and either died there or on the trip back
to Iowa. Winnie Arlene Spilman September 25, 1924 - April 10, 1931 died
from Scarlet Fever.
Daniel Spilman
1848-1915 - Life in England before going to the United States.
-Birth Certificate,
Sloop Walcot,
Whitton Windmill,
Map of North Lincolnshire to America 1870.
-Letters from America
back to England
-Dan's marriage to Thea Anderson
and his farm in Clear Lake, IA
Marriage Certificate,
1912 plat map,
Photo of Thea, Thea's death certificate
-Dan and Thea Spilman's
children photos
1893,
1898, 1961
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