Personal
Spence was born on December 22, 1832, in Enniskillen, Ireland, the son of Gabriel Spence. He was educated there by private tutors, and at the age of 20 he emigrated to America and worked on a farm near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for several months, then shipped to California via the Nicaragua route, arriving in San Francisco in December 1852. He spent some twenty years in Northern California and Nevada, settling in San Jose, California.
He was married about 1869 in California to Anna Maria Spence of Five Mile Town, County Tyrone, Ireland, and they had four children, William Glenn, George Edward, Albert Harry and Kathleen.
Spence died of heart failure September 19, 1892, in the home of a friend, John A. Fairchild, on Burlington Avenue near Ninth Street, in today's Westlake district, Los Angeles. He was 59 years old. The September 22 obsequies, which began in the family home on Burlington Avenue, were said to be "in point of attendance one of the largest ever held in this city" and the funeral procession to Evergreen Cemetery "one of the largest ever witnessed."
Read more about this topic: Edward F. Spence
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