Talk:Spencer, Indiana

Historical Background for Name

As I read the third section, titled General, discussing the naming of Spencer as being named by John Tipton for his friend George Spencer who was supposed to have died after the Battle of Tippecanoe of wounds received in the battle, my brain was telling me something was not right with that story. I was always under the impression, having lived in Spencer since I was a child of 10, being interested in history and geography in general, as well as being taught about town history during a history class, that the town was named for Spier Spencer who WAS in the Battle of Tippecanoe and who died on 7 November 1811. So I did some digging, starting with links provided in the article. First, it puzzled me why there was no link to an article about George Spencer on Wikipedia. If he's important enough to name a town after him, surely he'd have an article about him on here, you'd think. But I did not find one. Nor did I find him listed on a "List of people from Indiana" on here.

I first looked on the website for the Town of Spencer. According to the About Spencer page on that site, under the Statistics section, "Founded: 1820, Named for Captain Spier Spencer who was killed on November 11, 1811 in the Battle of Tippecanoe." Notice there is nothing about a George Spencer. I also thought at first that Spier Spencer

The US Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System lists the following quote about Spencer, "Founded in 1820 and named for Captain Spier Spencer (?-1811), who was killed in the Battle of Tippecanoe. (IN-T101)"

Since I knew that according to this article, George Spencer died on 11 November, 1811, I decided to look on Find A Grave to see if I could find him. Putting in just the year 1811, and last name of Spencer, I found only Spier Spencer listed. However, according to Find A Grave, when I do a search of the last name Spencer, and limit it to a death before 1812, I did find a reference to a George Spencer. Both Spier Spencer and George Spencer, along with Peter Hanks, William Davis, Samuel Sands, Thomas Berry, William Kelly, Fredrick Kearn, Marshal Duncan, and Richard M. McMahan are listed on a War of 1812 Memorial in Salem, Washington Co., Indiana(see picture at site).

I then did just a Google search on "Spencer, Indiana history". Of course I was not thinking and should have added Owen Co. because I did have to go through a number that were for Spencer Co. Indiana (also named after Capt. Spier Spencer). Many places state that the town of Spencer, in Owen Co. Indiana is named after Capt. Spier Spencer. In fact, THIS article is the only one where I have seen George Spencer listed as being the person for whom the town of Spencer was named for.

E-Podunk lists Capt. Spier Spencer as the person the town of Spencer is named for.

In looking for a roll of soldiers at the Battle of Tippecanoe, I found a blog titled "Whig Rose Journal Weblog of William Henry Harrison's GROUSELAND". A note on the About page of this blog states, "This blog is maintained by Daniel Sarell, Executive Director of William Henry Harrison’s Grouseland [Grouseland Foundation, Inc.]." In a post titled, "The Soldiers at the Battle of Tippecanoe (Nov. 7, 1811)" I found a list of the soldiers involved. The following is ALL of the men with the last name Spencer on the list. The post lists the source of this list as: Source: Virginia Smith (Battle Ground Elementary School, Battle Ground, IN) http://web.archive.org/web/20041011181145/http://dagwood.wvec.k12.in.us/battle/spencer.html Captain Spier Spencer (directly under Commander-in-Chief) Interestingly, one of the officers listed in Capt. Spier Spencer's Company of Mounted Rifleman of the Indiana Militia was John Tipton. He was a Captain, but had been newly promoted to that rank. "(Promoted from private to Ensign, Oct 21, 1811, to Captain Nov., 7, 1811)".

The next men are part of "Captain Spier Spencer’s Company of Mounted Rifleman of the Indiana Militia (This company was directly under the Commander-in-chief and reported to and received orders from his headquarters); Commanded by Spier Spencer, Captain (killed Nov. 7, 1811)"

James Spencer, Private George Spencer, Private

The following were from, "ROLL OF A COMPANY OF INFANTRY OF THER[sic] FOURTH U.S. REGIMENT From October 31, to December 31, 1811; Commanded by Joel Cook, Captain" Daniel Spencer, Private

So for whatever it's worth, as a 20+ year Spencerite, I have always heard that both the town of Spencer and Spencer Co. were named after Spier Spencer.

Movement of Notable People to List Article

Based upon the format and information that I saw in other geographical articles on cities, I created a list article and moved this information to that page. This Spencer article should be focused upon the city, not a page with lots of biographical information about its notable people, which could be done on other articles. Hermera34 (talk) 16:56, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Owen County Indiana Courthouse.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:23, 24 April 2020 (UTC)