Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
Mrs. Spelman, the mother, was also a devoted Christian. She now lives,
at the age of eighty-six, with her daughter, grateful, as she says, for
life's beautiful sunset. She is loved by everybody, and her sweet face
and voice would be sadly missed. She retains all her faculties, and has
as deep an interest as ever in all religious, philanthropic, and
political affairs.
The Spelman ancestors are English. Sir Henry Spelman, knighted by King
James I., died in 1641, and lies buried in Westminster Abbey. Henry S.,
the third son of Sir Henry, and first of the name in America, came to
Jamestown, Va., in 1609, and was killed by the Indians. Richard Spelman,
born in Danbury, England, in 1665, came to Middletown, Conn., in 1700,
and died in 1750. Laura's grandfather, Samuel, was the fourth in line
from Richard. He was one of the pioneers in Ohio, moving thither from
Granville, Mass. Her father, Harvey B. Spelman, was born in a log cabin
in Rootstown, Ohio. Her mother's family came also from Massachusetts,
from the town of Blanford; and her father and mother met and were
married in Ohio.
Laura Spelman was a member of the first graduating class of the
Cleveland High School, and has always retained the deepest interest in
her classmates. After graduating, and spending some time in a
boarding-school at the East, she taught very successfully for five years
in the Cleveland public schools, being assistant in one of the large
grammar schools.
At the age of twenty-five Mr. Rockefeller married Miss Spelman, Sept. 8,
1864. Disliking display or extravagance, fond of books, a wise adviser
in her home, a leader for many years of the infant department in the
Sunday-school, like her father a worker for temperance and in all
philanthropic movements, Mrs. Rockefeller has been an example to the
rich, and a friend and helper to the poor. Comparatively few men and
women can be intrusted with millions, and make the best use of the
money. With Mr. Rockefeller's married life thus happily and wisely
begun, business activities went on as before, perchance with less wear
of body and mind. It was, of course, impossible to organize and carry
forward a great business without anxiety and care.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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