Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists

Biography of Eliza Spencer, 1814-1887

 

By Chelsea Lundquist-Wentz, independent historian

Eliza Anne Spencer was born in Loudoun County, Virginia around 1814. Her early years and parental lineage are not documented. In her early twenties, Spencer moved to the District of Columbia where she had two daughters, Elizabeth and Josephine (sometimes known as Mary J.). By 1850, the young family of three was living in Ward 7, east of the Anacostia River. Records for the family are unclear during the next decade through the Civil War, though they likely remained in the eastern part of the District. The Spencer family would have seen the city infrastructure struggle to accommodate the population boom during the Civil War.

After the war, Freedman's Bureau Assistant Commissioner Charles H. Howard established the Special Relief Commission to provide food, clothing and other essentials to poor residents of Washington, D.C. Eliza Spencer received assistance from the commission one time during an illness, receiving $2.50 for coal on Thanksgiving day in 1866, which was then a newly established federal holiday.

By 1868, Spencer had recovered and made plans to relocate to the newly formed Barry Farm subdivision, purchasing the lumber to build her own home. Spencer was an establishing resident of this southeast Washington, D.C. neighborhood, a planned settlement created by the Freedmen's Bureau to relieve a housing strain in the city. African Americans, including newly liberated people, were provided loans to purchase 1-acre lots, typically to be paid back in monthly $10 installments. The subdivision was known first as Barry Farm or Potomac City, though residents later changed the name to Hillsdale. In 1870, Eliza Spencer moved with her adult daughters to her new home on Stanton Avenue in Hillsdale. There, the two daughters worked in domestic service and their mother at keeping house, making sufficient funds to save from their earnings. Both Eliza Spencer and daughter Josephine made deposits to the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company in the early 1870s. By the summer of 1874 the bank, in financial ruin, was closed by an Act of Congress; while depositors could petition to recoup their funds, only half received amounts less than the full value of their accounts, and the rest received nothing.

In 1877, some of Hillsdale's prominent black residents, both men and women, petitioned Congress in favor of women's right to vote. Spencer was one of the 15 black female citizens to sign their name on the document. She signed next to her longtime neighbors, Mrs. Delphia Lazinbury and Mrs. Mary V. Berry. The petition, which included 33 like-minded community members, reflects the citizenry of Hillsdale, who regularly engaged with each other in charitable efforts, benevolent and literature societies, and information sharing via an independent press. Spencer lived in this community for nearly two decades.

At the age of 73, Eliza Spencer suffered a 4-month long illness, possibly caused by stomach cancer. She died in her Stanton Avenue home on April 23, 1887 and was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Sources

AMOS, ALCIONE M., and PATRICIA BROWN SAVAGE. "Frances Eliza Hall: Postbellum Teacher in Washington, D.C." Washington History, vol. 29, no. 1, 2017, pp. 42–54., www.jstor.org/stable/90007373.

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Death Certificate for Eliza Anne Spencer, 23 April 1887, Record No. 56098, District of Columbia Health Department

"District of Columbia Deaths, 1874-1961," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV37-24YY : accessed 19 November 2019), Eliza Anne Spencer, 23 Apr 1887, District of Columbia, United States; citing reference ID cn 56098, District Records Center, Washington D.C.; FHL microfilm 2,135,866.

District of Columbia. Office of the Surveyor, et al. Map of the division of the north half of a tract of land called "St. Elisabeth," situated on the east side of the Anacostia River in the county of Washington, D.C.: surveyed into one acre lots for sale to freedmen. 1867. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/88693083/>.

History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, "Petition for Woman Suffrage," https://history.house.gov/Records-and-Research/Listing/pm_012/

Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. List of First Settlers of Barry Farm/Hillsdale 1867-1871. 1981. History of Place research files, Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, D.C.

Josiah, Barbara P. "Providing for the Future: The World of the African American Depositors of Washington, DC's Freedmen's Savings Bank, 1865-1874." The Journal of African American History, vol. 89, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1–16. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4134043.

"Records of the Field Offices for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1870" (https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAAHC.FB.M1902)

"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DRD9-7VQ?cc=1401638&wc=95R3-3YQ%3A1031304801%2C1031304802%2C1031482801 : 9 April 2016), District of Columbia > Washington > Washington, ward 7 > image 91 of 113; citing NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-625S-P2Z?cc=1438024&wc=92KF-W38%3A518663701%2C518654602%2C518869501 : 8 June 2019), District of Columbia > Washington > Washington City, subdivision east of 7th Street > image 116 of 178; citing NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

"United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-X4X8-K7?cc=1417695&wc=3MDR-RM9%3A1551794703%2C1551800972 : 5 February 2015), Washington D. C. > Roll 4, July 11, 1865-Dec 30, 1871, accounts 5-1553, 3500-7197, 7406-9316 > image 442 of 841; citing NARA microfilm publication M816 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1970).

"United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-X4X8-W6?cc=1417695&wc=3MDR-RM9%3A1551794703%2C1551800972 : 5 February 2015), Washington D. C. > Roll 4, July 11, 1865-Dec 30, 1871, accounts 5-1553, 3500-7197, 7406-9316 > image 495 of 841; citing NARA microfilm publication M816 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1970).

"District of Columbia, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1863-1872," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8937-NNQS?cc=2333782&wc=9J3J-DPD%3A1069294816%2C1069294815 : 3 August 2016), Barry Farm > Roll 20, Press copies of letters sent and received by the superintendent, Sep 18, 1867-Mar 9, 1869 > image 55 of 74; citing NARA microfilm publication M1902 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

"United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Assistant Commissioner, 1865-1872," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9TD-KDZB?cc=2427901&wc=73RQ-3MH%3A1513840202%2C1513853101 : 23 March 2017), District of Columbia > Roll 16, Records relating to the relief of destitute freedmen, weekly reports of operations of the special relief commission, 1866-1868 > image 176 of 715; citing multiple NARA microfilm publications; Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861 - 1880, RG 105; (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1969-1980).

"United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Assistant Commissioner, 1865-1872," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9TD-K66R?cc=2427901&wc=73RQ-3MJ%3A1513840202%2C1514079949 : 23 March 2017), District of Columbia > Roll 16, Records relating to the relief of destitute freedmen, register of destitute persons recommended for relief, 1866-1868 > image 52 of 98; citing multiple NARA microfilm publications; Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861 - 1880, RG 105; (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1969-1980).

 

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