BERRIEN COUNTY MICHIGAN ****************************************************************** Submitted to the Michigan Biographies Project by: Jon R Spencer November 20, 2001 ****************************************************************** Copied from 'A Twentieth Century History of Berrien County, Michigan ' by Judge Orville W. Coolidge, published in 1906 by the Lewis Publishing Company of Chicago and New York. It is not known if this company still exists. BENAJAH HIATT SPENCER, connected with one of the leading productive industries of Benton Harbor, is now extensively and successfully engaged in the manufacture of furniture and his business interests are of a character, which contribute to the general development and prosperity as well as to individual success. The welfare of any community depends upon its commercial and industrial activity and the real upbuilders and promoters of a town are those who establish and successfully control important business interests. Mr. Spencer may therefore well be classed among the representative men of Benton Harbor and as such we present the record of his life to our readers. A native of Indiana, his birth occurred in Wayne County on The 21st of March 1845. His paternal grandfather, David Spencer, was born April 19, 1791, and removed from Ohio to Wayne county, Indiana, at an early epoch in the development and improvement of the latter district. He married Miss Leah Pickering, who was born in Ohio, July 4, 1796, and they both passed away in the 50's, the grandfather's death occurring on the 25th of September 1858, while his wife died August 30, 1853. In their family were eight children, of whom Nathan Spencer, father of our subject, was the fourth in order of birth. He was born in Zanesville, Ohio, April 20, 1820 and on the 28th of March, 1844, was married in Indiana to Miss Louisa Hiatt, whose birth occurred in that State on the 29th of October, 1822. Mr. Spencer had become a resident of Indiana in his boyhood days, accompanying his parents on their removal westward. He was reared to the occupation of farming and throughout his entire life followed that pursuit, whereby he provided a good living for his family. He died January 25, 1892, when in the seventy-second year of his age, and his widow passed away on the 15th of November 1899. In their family were seven children, of whom six are yet living, as follows: Benajah H.; Joseph Henry, who was born in Milton, Indiana: Mrs. Viola Griffith: Jerome; Mrs. Alveretta Steed and Charles. Benajah Hiatt Spencer was reared in Milton, Wayne County, Indiana, spending his youth upon a farm and acquiring his education in the district schools. He continued under the parental roof until 1863 and on leaving home went to Illinois, where he worked as a farm hand for several months. He was ambitious; however, to secure a position in a factory and was offered one at New Troy, Berrien County, Michigan, where the manufacture of broom handles was carried on. He left the train at what was known as Avery Station and had to travel six miles north to New Troy. The roads were so impassable and the county so new that he had to walk this distance, leaving his trunk at Avery Station with the intention of sending for it the next day. He could get no team to make the trip, however, on account of the condition of the roads, so he made a sled and went for the trunk himself, traveling through the forest. It was on the 18th of December 1863, that he made the trip back to New Troy. The roads had frozen in the meantime and he was thus able to haul his sled. He remained at that place until the following June, when the factory was removed to Avery Station and he continued to work there until 1865. On the 1st of March of that year, however, he went to Mishawaka, Indiana, where he secured employment in a furniture factory as wood turner, continuing to fill the position until October of the same year. He then secured employment in Buchanan, Michigan, working for C. S. and H. S. Black, with whom he continued for six years. On the expiration of that period he spent about two years in the service of the Buchanan Manufacturing Company, engaged in the manufacture of furniture, but was ambitious to enter business on his own account so that his labors might more directly benefit himself. Therefore on the 20th of July 1872, he formed a partnership with Jacob Allen under the firm name of Spencer & Allen and opened a retail furniture store and also a shop for job work. In October of the same year Mr. Allen sold his interest in the business to Augustus Willard and the firm became Spencer & Willard, this relationship being maintained until December 1874, when Mr. Willard was succeeded by J. E. Barnes and the firm style of Spencer & Barnes was assumed. They continued at Buchanan, Michigan, their business constantly increasing, and at length its proportions caused them to establish a plant elsewhere. They chose Benton Harbor as the scene of their new industry and in 1891 erected their present plant in this city. The same year C. D. Stuart was admitted to a partnership and the firm name became Spencer, Barnes & Stuart. They enlarged the business from time to time, increasing their facilities to meet the growing demands of the trade, which reached large proportions. After Mr. Barnes became interested they gradually entered the field of wholesale trade and more and more largely directed their energies to the manufacture of furniture, theirs becoming an important commercial and industrial enterprise. In 1896 Mr. Stuart withdrew from the firm, and the name of the Spencer & Barnes Company, with J. E. Barnes as president, B. H. Spencer vice president, and Mary L. Spencer, secretary and treasurer. The firm manufactures all kinds of bedroom furniture of high and medium grades and is conducting a very profitable enterprise, employment being now furnished to one hundred employees. The output finds a ready sale on the market because of the excellence of the product, the reasonable prices and the well-known reliability of the house. The manufactured product includes fine mahogany, birds-eye maple and quarter-sawed oak bedroom furniture. On the 9th of July, 1865, Mr. Spencer was united in marriage to Miss Betsy Ann Glidden, who was born may 17, 1846, in Stephenson county, Illinois, and is a daughter of Greenleaf and Mary J. (Ames) Glidden. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have become the parents of five children. Ada is now the wife of O. K. Monson, of Chicago, Illinois and has two sons, Laurence and Robert. Mary L. is the second of the family. Alice E. is the wife of Frank Shaw, of Oneida, Illinois. Irven E. is married to Ruth Robbins, and Jean W. completes the family. Mr. Spencer votes with the Republican Party and has endorsed its principles sine age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He is a self-made man and one of the enterprising citizens of the county. From an humble financial position he has worked his way steadily upward to one of affluence and has made a business record which any man might be proud to possess, for it has ever been characterized by strict and unswerving integrity and by fidelity to all the principles which govern honorable manhood and unflagging industry. The record of the self-made man is the one, which the American citizen holds in greatest honor, for it is indicative of force of character, of keen business discernment and of genuine personal merit. In community affairs Mr. Spencer is deeply interested and has ever manifested a public-spirited devotion to the general good. He is esteemed in public and private life, in business and social relations, and his many friends find him a companionable genial gentleman.