The Spaulding Family story...

I decided to spend some time seeing what I could find out about our Spaulding family connection.

We know from various sources (including their county marriage record) that James W. Ramsay married Mary Adelaide Spaulding on November 15, 1868 in Jasper County, Missouri. James and Mary had children and eventually found their way to Washington Territory living in King, Pierce and Okanogan Counties. Their youngest child was Lillian Mae Ramsay, born in Marion, Pierce County, Washington Territory on May 10, 1887. Lillian or 'Lillie' would marry Charles Amasa Galloway on March 11, 1903 in Republic, WA though their families were living a bit West of there in the area of Wauconda.

From Charles and Lillie's brief union was born Elsie Mae and Effie G. Galloway. Elsie Galloway married Maurice Lake Hamilton in Okanogan, WA on September 29th, 1920. Maurice was the son of Judd and Annettie Hamilton and the grandson of Supplina and Jane Hamilton.

James W. Ramsay is buried in the Wauconda, WA cemetery next to his infant grand daughter, Effie Galloway and his brother-in-law, Charles Spaulding. A picture of the three adjacent graves may be viewed at this link:

http://www.myhamiltonfamily.org/photos/GlenHamilton_18_2/June_2006_149.jpg

Mary A. (Spaulding) Ramsay died in 1939 and is buried in the Tonasket, WA cemetery along with her sons John, George and her grandson James who passed away in 1990.

We are assuming that the Charles A. Spaulding who is buried next to James W. Ramsay and Effie G. Galloway is related to James wife, Mary A. Spaulding. This is a reasonable assumption that can then be tested by census and other historical records. The headstones on all three graves are not original. They were placed there by the Precht Funeral home in later years as the originals were in bad condition or perhaps missing altogether. The Wauconda cemetery is a small remote poorly maintained county cemetery. The marker for Charles A. Spaulding has no birth or death dates. Based on the census research that I'll outline below, I believe that this is really the grave of Charles W. Spaulding who was born in Wisconsin in c. 1854 to Lewis Spaulding and his wife Lucy, or perhaps by an earlier wife of Lewis that we have yet have no record of.

Charles Spaulding's father, Lewis, was born in Maine in 1813 and his mother was born in Pennsylvania. Charles never married. Piecing together the census record and known family history, his family is thought to have been:

Name Birth Birth State Relation
Lewis Spaulding 1813 Maine Father
Lucy Spaulding 1831 New York (or PA) Mother (possibly stepmother)
Deforrest W. Spaulding 1848 Illinois Son
Mary A. Spaulding 1850 Wisconsin Daughter
Charles W. Spaulding 1854 Wisconsin Son
John Spaulding 1855 Wisconsin Son
George Spaulding 1857 Wisconsin Son

Charles W. Spaulding shows up with his family in the 1870 US Census in Centre Creek Township in Jasper County, Missouri. Charles sister, Mary A. Spaulding married James W. Ramsay in Jasper County two years earlier in 1868 and they moved to Cherokee County, Kansas.

In the 1880 US Census we find Charles working as a Laborer in Prineville, Wasco County, Oregon. It appears he may have been working on a farm or ranch owned by JJ Speegle. In 1883 we find Charles in the Washington Territorial Census living in the household of his older brother Deforrest and family. They were farming in King County, Washington Territory. Living next to them were their parents. It appears the patriarch of the family, Lewis Spaulding, may have remarried as his wife is an 'EE' Spaulding whose birth year is approximately 1838.

In 1885 Charles is listed in the Washington Territorial Census as farming and living in same household as his parents in Pierce County. Charles father was 72 years old. Also living and farming in Pierce County were Charles' sister and family, James W. and Mary A. Ramsay. In May of 1887, Charles had another niece born, Lillian Mae Ramsay, near the town of Marion.

Charles must have joined or followed the Stilley and Ramsay families as they left Pierce County for Okanogan County in North Central Washington because by the 1910 US Census we find him living in the Malott Precinct in Okanogan County right next to Jacob and Elizabeth Stilley and their young family. Jacob was the youngest son of Jeremiah and Mariah Stilley who moved to Okanogan County by wagon from Pierce County with James and Mary A. (Spaulding) Ramsay and families.

In the 1920 Census Charles in living in the Tunk Creek Precinct in Okanogan County as a 66 year old lodger in the home of Frank Brown. We are assuming that Charles died before the 1930 census and was buried by his sister in her family plot, next to her husband James W. Ramsay, at the Wauconda Cemetery.

So this ends what we currently know of Mary Spaulding's family. The close connection between the Spaulding and the Ramsay and the Stilley families makes one wonder if there was some inter-marriage with the Stilleys but that has yet to be discovered.

Glen M. Hamilton
March 2007