Memorials › Susan Gatherer Spalding

Susan Gatherer Spalding

1863 – 29 Jun 1936

Birth	1863
Death	29 Jun 1936
Cemetery	Murray Cemetery Shoshone County , Idaho , USA
Added by	Bridgette Wilson on 15 Nov 2009
FaG	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44354596

Bio

MAIDEN NAME, A STORY-TELLING ONE Her maiden name, Gatherer, was also seen as Gathers. Either way, often misspelled, it was an occupational name, like Carpenter and Sawyer and Baker, and Cook. If needing things quickly picked up off of the ground, a property-owner could find someone called a Gatherer, that is, someone who "Gathers". In some coal-producing parts of Scotland, such people were paid by the bucket, instead of by the hour. Their children, tiny or large, thus, worked alongside their parents to add to the buckets turned in. Almost serf-like, many reacted to the poverty implied by changing countries. At some early point, they would have had no surname. When surnames began to be required, their occupation was used. Grain could be gathered; so could stones and berries. Coal could be found strewn across the ground in parts of Scotland, as recently as the 1850s, maybe later. Once that supply was gone, workers needed to dig into the ground, become a miners. Many were miners by the time they came here, hiring out as laborers at first. (This writer had a family branch arriving from Scotland, saying their children helped with bucket-gathering work. They were not allowed to "advance in life" until the northern US allowed an education there, not denied one. Their branch joined with other immigrants, forming a Scottish land-buying association, which the Germans called a "people's bank", people cooperating with each other by saving together, investing to get around bankers not willing to lend. Good land in the Midwest was already taken, however. Not staying long there, that branch moved on to the Pacific Northwest, some with a reputation as skilled fiddle-makers, then as carpenters and housebuilders.) Her 1st marriage, to John Rickles --That John was listed as NY-born, her married name was Susan Rickles, Mich-born, seen together in 1880 (when she was 16, to his 25). That was the first US-wide census to ask for parents' birthplaces. Guesses were ok, usually based on old residences. People were surprised by the new question, then "asked somebody", in order to give a better answer "next time". The 1880 census was also the first census to state relationships outright. The earlier censuses implied them, not always clearly, by putting the male head first (father? uncle?), the female head second (mother? aunt?), with children next (any stepchildren?). Last were grandparents, then boarders and employees. Her 1880 Census was very important for her. Why? She and John Rickles lived next to her parents for that census, multiple of her siblings still at home. Her eldest was brother John, named for their father, younger, b. Maryland, not Scotland. Staying longer than average with the family, as if saving money for a business idea or land purchase, his presence, as the only one MD-born, made them easy to recognize, even when later Censuses deeply mis-spelled their surname. (His MD birth was after the parents married in PA, their respective towns near the MD-PA line.) The last-born children, beginning with herself, were born after a move to Michigan. Parents and children were then censused there several times. The prior census had counted the still small family in Wisconsin. Her siblings James, Jane, and Samuel were born in Douglas County, WI (town of Superior there). However, too young to remember being there, when asked later, they did not always report WI for themselves. At those times, some substituted Mich., where most of them and their parents died. The three Michigan-born were herself, then younger sister Elizabeth (married name to be Girard), and another Census needed to show the last-arriving Walter. Her 1870 Census at age 7 found her double-counted, as they'd moved too quickly, between two visitations, one in Ishpeming, MI (Marquette County), the other at Rockland, MI (Ontonagon County). If work ran out in one place, people had to move to another. She and John had a son, Sylvester Rickles, in 1881, the year after their 1880 census was done next to her parents, at Breitung, MI (Menominee County). John then died? High mortality from accidents was a "feature "of coal mining. However, high divorce rates were a "feature" of "marrying too young". It seems likely his death followed, as no John Rickles/Rickles was found nearby, in Michigan or Wisc. or ID, later on. Her 2nd marriage, to Peter L Spaulding, his name "sounded out" as Spalding, hers as "Rickels" . As both a widow and a bride, her 2nd marriage was out in a newly settling part of Idaho, in 1892, the image of the handwritten showing the wedding in Shoshone County, the clergyman saying their faith was "Protestant Episcopal". There seemed to be two such churches, one called Trinity at the courthouse town of Wallace, one called St Andrews at the market town of Mullan, a bit bigger than their burial town at Murray. To show they were early arrivals, her and Peter's marriage of 1892 matched the opening of school for Mullan, the newly created St Andrews holding services there until able to build its own church. Historical people writing about St Andrews said it had trouble attracting ministers (too remote?), but that it continued into the 1980s, and the building still stands. Such places often sent their records elsewhere, Trinity records at Wallace might contain names otherwise lost? She then had three more known children, all with Peter. Her eldest son, born Rickles, was accepted into the new family, allowed to use the Spaulding name. They used the Spaulding spelling repeatedly in the Censuses. They used it on the eldest daughter's birth record, where Peter noted his middle name was Lincoln. Lincoln? Spouse Peter's birth was early 1860s, thus, near the start of the Civil War, when Abe Lincoln was President. (The 1890 Census had a special section for Civil War veterans and their widows. Many in their fathers' era, from their states, volunteered. Many were anti-slavery. The work many left behind in Europe had been too close to slavery; they were not about to give permission to others to have slaves. Men in their fathers' era, with young children, were often recruited late, once the supply of young men ran short. Was spouse Peter's father, said to be another Peter, no middle initial, too important workwise, to be recruited? Coal was needed to run freight trains supplying soldiers? ) The 1890 Censuses of families and other households were kept apart from the soldier surveys. That larger set was not as safe, kept in a place that could, and then, finally, did burn. Thus, their 1890 Census, the one with eldest son Sylvester and her newer Spauldings together, is missing. By the 1900 Census, brother Samuel Gatherer and his Swedish-born wife Charlotte had moved to Shoshone County, ID, their town/township called Gem. Their children included a three-year-old called Susan, b. Murray, ID, and a one-year-old called Peter. Sylvester was away in 1900, stationed abroad, on board a ship with older men, for his military service in the Philippines. Her son Sylvester surprised them by dying first? They buried him, stone spelling Spaulding correctly, with a U, not "sounded out" as Spalding. His military marker had almost everything abbreviated, but no dates; paper records were found for those. He'd come home ill in 1902, an invalid's pension needed, until his death a few years later, a widow's pension then granted, 1906, to his wife Mae, a stipend added for daughter Vesta/Faye Spaulding, until she turned 16. The cemetery list at Murray, ID, showed his burial as the first of four in the family plot. Buried vaguely, as Corp 'l S.R. Spaulding, the military chose Spaulding, who used the initial R to denote Rickles. The Murray cemetery list gave his death town as Mullan. His half-sister Susan, maybe close enough to him to be "best friends", would go to Mullan later for her marriage. After he died, there was a bad fire affecting timber and buildings over the area's mineral belt, causing over 50 deaths. In covering a local weekly newspaper for the main town of Wallace, Loc.gov (Library of Congress), added, "In August 1910, forest fires raged all around Shoshone County for weeks". The mines bounced back, but the side income from harvesting timber was missing. Mullan and Murray were affected, Wallace, more so. Adversity causes moves? She and Peter, by 1920, not ready to retire, went to Sunset, still in Shoshone County, their youngest child, son Peter Jr, with them, age 19, as of Jan. 21-22. His father worked, had risen to some sort of engineer, for a metals mine. The Jr was not well enough to work, as no occupation was listed? Her daughters did some of their married life nearby, both having married in 1916. Laura and her spouse, British-born George Wheatley, were married in Mineral County in Montana. By 1920, they were nearby, as at Sunset, in the home county of Shoshone. They eventually went to Silverton, same county. Susan P. and her spouse, Missouri-born Carl T. Kulhanek, had married instead at Mullan. By 1920, they were in Portland, Ore., thus, not far from Sylvester's widow, at the OR state capital, in Salem. The widowed daughter-in-law's re-marriage in Sept. 1922 was detected in Sylvester's files, as her widow's pension then ended. She moved just one more time, to OR with Peter Sr, alone, as Peter Jr had died in 1920. Daughter Susan's Kulhaneks remained in Portland for a while, thus, perhaps there, when this Susan died in 1936 at nearby Clackamas County 1936, able to write an obit for the Oregonian? However. The Kulhaneks would return to the drier side of the mountains, buried at Spokane, WA, not far from the northern counties of Idaho, which included Shoshone and Nez Perce. Susan's brother, Samuel, had returned to the dry side, even earlier, by 1920, to Asotin, WA. Sam's town was on the WA-ID boundary, where he died at age 80. The decision to shift to the "sound-it-out" of Spalding, dropping the U?? It was seen when retired at Clackamas, not far from Portland and Salem, but only briefly. The spelling then went back to Spaulding for her obit in 1936, daughter Susan nearby, so likely the obit's author. A final shift to Spalding was made AFTERWARD, two years later, when Peter died, his death report, not in OR, but in ID. He had returned to the dry side, death in Wallace, daughter Laura, then the one nearby. His death report of 1938 used Spalding. The family-wide headstone for the graves at Murray, now four in number, used Spalding. Was it purposeful, as he'd discovered an old record showing his parents used that spelling? Or, had whoever reported his death and then ordered the stones, never seen the Spaulding name spelled? Only heard it pronounced? Some grandchild? Again, her own obit of 1936, published in "The Oregonian", used Spaulding. Four of Susan's siblings were still living, including Sam, Walter, and Mrs. Girard, none of them called Spaulding. Of her own children, four names are known; only married daughters Susan and Laura were named. Though still living, "side relatives" Mae and Vesta Faye, and Bonnie were not named, nor were other grandchildren cited. SOME GRANDCHILDREN, ONE ADOPTED? Her first son's only Census easily found, the 1900, was on board a ship stationed in the Philippines, the docking region said to have had cholera and other outbreaks of infectious disease, in the surrounding years. He'd married in Idaho, in 1901, at Nez Perce, his bride's county, while home on leave. Rickles was still his legal surname, used when he married Mae (Daisy Mae Stimson). Susan's first grandchild was then born, called Spaulding, a granddaughter named Vesta Faye, aka Faye. Her death record reported her birthplace as Pacific County, WA, on the coast, easily accessible by seamen when their ships came back. After Sylvester took ill and died, Faye and her mother moved southward, to Salem, Ore. (Marion County). By their 1920 Census, Mae and Faye were raising Bonnie/Bonita Spaulding, age 2 and 8 months, born 1917. That census called the toddler an "adopted daughter" of Mae. Did Susan regard the new little one as a granddaughter? Was she a child of her youngest son, Peter the Jr, or some other relative spouse of Peter the Sr? Nothing was said of Jr's later marital status as months passed until his death, only that he was still single as of January 1920. His cemetery stone indicates he died later that year, his body returned to Murray for burial next to Sylvester. Susan and then Peter the Sr would be alongside later Both Mae and Faye married Sumerlins, both couples in Coos County, Oregon. Faye married a young one, b. OR, in 1927, after Mae married his apparently much older brother, the widowed David Mathias Sumerlin, b.TN. Mae had remarried by Sept 1922, the date known, as pension files remarked it ended her widow's pension from Sylvester. "Side relative" Bonnie, b. 1917 was five at Mae's remarriage. Bonnie would still be with Mae for their 1930 Census, still called Spaulding. Despite her youth, she was called a "lodger", not clear whose idea that was, the interviewer's? Nothing was said any longer about being an adopted daughter. Bonnie would marry a man from Asotin, Mr. Watkins. Maybe introduced by someone from Sam Gatherer's family? Her spouse's military service earned her a burial at Willamette. Research by contributor 48697180 JB, 2024, Nov. Sources viewable at FamilySearch.org. More detailed obit at GenealogyBank, Inc.

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Peter Lincoln Spalding 1861–1938 FaG

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