Samuel Benjamin Spaulding - Eighth Generation

Samuel Benjamin Spaulding's family was a remnant of the colonial plantation system of Maryland. During the 1930's, political & social changes swept away this way of living. Changes which the Civil War had brought to Kentucky's agrarian economy were acerbated by the Great Depression, FDR's "New Deal," rural electrification, and rise of WWII's industrial society. Relatives remember: "Sam was a great one for singing and playing country ballads on his fiddle." What I remember, was his kind, lined face in the yellow lamplight around an oilcloth-covered table. I never saw so many benches & chairs! Birthing many children meant stability for farm families. Sadly even in the 30's and 40's, many young children never made it into adulthood due to disease and ineffectual medicine. Minnie Jane Dawson Spaulding served the community as a midwife and spent many hours in her buggy attending birthings. .

Childhood memories differ from adult reminiscences, partly because a child's world is self-centered, partly because adults experience the Tom Wolfe aphorism: You can't go home again! To return to childhood for me means a journey by sleek 1930's roadster over an Ohio River bridge into the rolling green hills of Northern Kentucky. As an urban child, visiting my kinfolk meant crossing a bridge from a city suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio to a farm in the rolling hills of Kentucky. Sam was the hub of the wheel, the center as well as heart of the Spaulding family, who lived & worked on a self-contained tobacco farm although I remember a bread vendor braving the farm's steep rutted road. I also remember icy-cold well water, clucking chickens, a redolent pig sty, hickory smoke, and a large barn complete with hay loft, work horses, and cows. Most food products were grown & produced on the farm. Pigs were slaughtered, chickens were beheaded & plucked, hams were smoked. Besides gathering nuts in the fall for spice cakes, a farm-child could swing on vines over sun-dappled ravines, fish for crawdads, milk cows, slide on sweet-smelling hay, holler down a rain barrel, ride work horses back from the fields, or go over the hills to visit a log cabin homeplace.

To delve into Sam's family history, he was blessed with a sturdiness & physical vigor of his Saxon ancestors. Judge Charles Warren Spalding of Chicago wrote no truer words in the "Spalding Memorial: These sturdy and robust pioneers, early inured to toil, were imbued with a spirit of self-reliance and indomitable will.  Sam had the stern values of his forebears with a Baptist interpretation. Sam loved the church, the Bible, and Minnie Jane Dawson in that order. Bible reading aloud in the back parlor was a nightly ritual as religion was a mainstay of the family. Sam, however, tempered his stern nature with a love & understanding of small children. When religious discussion became too intense for his gentle nature, he took off over pasture & stream for the homeplace, a long abandoned log cabin where he kept his counsel, even slept there sometimes, no doubt. Sam didn't have much as the world counts riches, but he stood tall as a man of the Kentucky soil, a patriarch of the Old Testament. His word was his bond; his slow drawl was soft, but heeded.

His spirit remained undaunted through the Great Depression, a pesky drought in his river valley, and the machinations of European leaders which culminated in another World War. Sam suffered silently a painful stomach ailment which caused his death in October 1941. Minnie Jane Dawson Spaulding lived on the Kentucky farm near Grant's Lick for many years. Finally, ill health made her sell the farm and go live with her daughters. She died on June 15, 1955, in St. Luke's hospital with her family around her.

Children of Samuel B. Spaulding and his wife Minnie Jane Dawson:

1. Raymond Spaulding b. June 4, 1891, m. Mary Lawson; d. Sept., 1969.

2. Ethel Spaulding b. March 3, 1893; m. William M. Sprague; d. Feb. 27, 1975.

3. Lillie Spaulding b. Mar. 1, 1895; m. Oscar Ratliff, John Conrad, Vance Pribble; d. Jan 28, 1978 Clermont Co, Ohio.

4. Alma Spaulding b. Nov. 7, 1896; m. Edgar Kennel 1941; d. Sept. 2, 1990, Sharonville, Ham. Co. Ohio.

5. Genevieve Spaulding b. Sept. 2, 1898; m. Bane Pribble Aug 30, 1916; d. June 15, 1985 Campbell Co, Ky.

6. Verner Samuel Spaulding b. Jan 16, 1901; m. Mamie Losey; d. 1960 Pleasant Ridge, Campbell Co, Ky.

7. Neville Spaulding b. Dec. 10, 1902; d. Feb. 16, 1919, Louisville, Jefferson Co, Ky.

8. Grace Spaulding

9. Louis Glenn Spaulding b. Aug 21, 1909; m. Gladys Losey Morgan; d. May. 9, 1974.

10. Ava Louellen Spaulding b. Nov. 23, 1915; m. Carl Losey, Chas. Bradford; d. Aug. 20, 1998.

IN RETROSPECT

How proud Sam's progeny feel coming from such fierce stock! Over a span of eleven generations in America, Spaldings have celebrated their family motto: Hinc Mihi Salus. When Thomas Spalding left the Fenlands of East Anglia to escape religious persecution, he was also leaving a static class-bound society. The founding of the American colonies was unfortunately riddled with poorly conceived plans, stupid governors, and pressure for profit from absentee landowners. Religious freedom meant little in the face of starvation. Sad, but true, many colonists died of disease & overwork.

In St. Mary's County, a newly formed Protestant majority persecuted older Catholic families like the Spaldings! The novelist James Michener chronicled the means whereby Catholics were disenfranchised: not allowed to vote or hold public office, not allowed worship in their churches or hold schools. Maryland Catholics were once again in the grip of class dominance. Nevertheless, Spaldings fought alongside their compatriots for political freedom in the Revolutionary War. The Kentucky frontier, a dark & bloody ground, was fought over by settler and Indian. Once more, Hannah & Aaron Spalding sowed, reaped and begat the family which became the Spaldings of Northern Kentucky's Campbell County.

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