SPENCER, Mary Ann Ramsay - Putnam

Mary Ann Spencer was born in Russell Township, Putnam County, Indiana Feb 28th, 1827 and died at the home of her son-in-law, James R. Crutchfield, near Waveland June 30th, 1909 in her 83rd year. She was the second daughter of William B. and Elizabeth Ramsay. She came of an ancestry of zealous Christians of the old Scotch Presbyterian faith. Her childhood and young womanhood was passed on the farm on which she was born and which her father entered from the government. Her mother died in 1848 leaving upon the daughter the charge of the home and the care of two younger brothers. These duties were faithfully discharged until the remarriage of her father.  Oct 20th, 1852, she united in marriage with Robert Spencer, Jr. and began married life in the village of Portland Mills, Indiana where her husband was engaged in the mercantile business. To them were born three children: Martha Elizabeth, wife of James R. Crutchfield, Mary Margaret, recently deceased, wife of Shelby W. McCormick of Waveland and Newton R. Spencer, Greenfield, Indiana. The deceased united with the Associate Presbyterian Church in early life under the pastorate of the late James Dixon. With her husband she became one of the original members which constituted the United Presbyterian Congregation which was organized at the time of the union of the Associate and Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches in 1859 and retained her membership in that organization until the time of her death. July 28, 1865, her husband died leaving her with the responsibility of three small children. Though in delicate and impaired health and in limited financial circumstances, she accepted the responsibility which Providence had placed upon her with rare courage and fortitude. With her small estate she purchased a little farm and cared for her children in an exceptional manner. She was a woman of true worth. She met the responsibilities of life courageously. She was not afraid of responsibility.  She has left the impress for good upon all with whom she came in contact. She always sought to see the right and to be right. Her faith in God and Christianity had no limitations. Her devotion to her religion and church was very strong and remained her greatest consolation to the end of her life. She was remarkably patient under extreme affliction and deeply regretted that she should be a care to others. It might be truthfully said of her that in extreme advanced age, more than four score years, she was severely tested in the adversity of terrible and indescribable pain and suffering and came out of it all triumphant in the spirit of Thy Will Be Done.  In her family relations she was a loving daughter and sister. Her devotion to an aged father is recalled by the writer as one of the many examples of her remarkable faithfulness to life’s duties. She was a devoted wife, an affectionate mother, a kind and obliging neighbor and friend, a true and devout Christian. She loved the true and the pure. She has fought a faithful fight and has triumphed in life’s battles and under the promises of God in which she so implicitly trusted, she is now reaping the great reward in the life beyond the valley and shadows of death, with the loved ones who have gone before and she has left a rich legacy in the way of an example of a faithful life to her friends on earth. In the weakness of the flesh they mourn today but in the true Christian spiritual faith they said, “Well done thou true Christian mother, though blinded by earthly tears we will seek to follow thee. She leaves to mourn her death, a daughter and son, four grandchildren, five brothers, a sister and many relatives and friends. The funeral occurred at the home and was conducted by Rev. Thomas G. Pierce of the Presbtyterian Church at Waveland assisted by Rev. UM Creath of the Methodist Church of the same place. Her body was laid to rest at the side of her husband in Portland Mills cemetery where members of her family have been interred for three generations and in the vicinity of which she was born, reared her family and spent the great part of her life.”