Santa Clara County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



 
ALBERT ALEXANDER SPENCE
 
 is a native of California, having been born in Monterey County, April 17, 1859. 
His father was also a native Californian, and his grandfather, David Spence, a 
native of Scotland, who came to the Pacific Coast early in the century, became a 
wealthy man, prominent in the early development of California, and was for a 
time Alcalde of Monterey. A fuller reference to the connection of David Spence 
and his family with the history of California will be found in the biographical 
sketches of Rudolph and David Spence, in this work.
        Albert A. received his education at the Santa Clara College, where he 
commenced his studies in 1870, and there remained until 1879. He then traveled 
through the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America, for one year. 
On his return to California, he was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Hastings, 
daughter of Lansford Warren and Charlotte Catherine (Toler) Hastings.
        Lansford W. Hastings was one of the early pioneers of the Pacific Coast, 
having come to Oregon in 1842, and thence to Sacramento, California, in 1843. 
Born in Ohio in 1819, of an old English family of which the celebrated Warren 
Hastings, of East India fame, was a prominent member, he was educated for the 
law and practiced his profession in his native State, with credit, and also made 
his mark as an author. Being of an adventurous disposition, he organized an 
emigrant party made up of well-to-do farmers and neighbors in Ohio, whom he 
undertook to guide, early in 1846, across the then pathless prairies and 
mountains to California. The party suffered great hardships and privations, but 
eventually succeeded in reaching their destination, and subsequently most of 
them settled in Contra Costa and what afterward became Alameda County, where 
some of the party and their descendants still reside. When Hastings arrived in 
California with his train, he found the county in possession of the United 
States forces, it having been taken formal possession of by Commodore John D. 
Sloat, commanding the naval forces in the Pacific, under a proclamation issued 
at Monterey, California, on July 7, 1846. In the fall of that year quite an 
extensive revolution was started by the Mexican residents in the southern part 
of the State. Commodore Stockton, then in command, proceeded to San Diego and 
organized a force to march on Los Angeles, where the revolutionists had 
concentrated, at the same time ordering General Fremont to enlist what emigrants 
he could in Northern California and cooperate with him by land from the north. 
On hearing that volunteers were wanted, Hastings immediately commenced gathering 
together what men he could, was elected captain, and joined Fremont at Monterey, 
other companies joining him at the same time.
        After the revolution was subdued, in which Hastings performed his part 
with credit, he returned to Northern California and settled at Sutter's Fort, 
afterwards called Sacramento, where he was residing at the time of the discovery 
of gold. He went to Coloma, near where gold was first discovered, and started a 
store. In this venture he amassed quite a fortune. Returning to Sacramento, he 
speculated for some time in real estate, in which he was not successful, having 
attempted to build up a rival city to Sacramento on its southern border. Failing 
in this, and losing in other real-estate speculations, he eventually lost nearly 
all of his large fortune.
        In 1848 Mr. Hastings married a daughter of H. Toler, a native of 
Virginia, who had resided many years in South America, engaged in mercantile 
pursuits, and for several years as United States Consul in the West Indies. In 
South America Mr. Toler had married a Spanish lady and had two children, William 
P. Toler, who was a midshipman in the United States Navy on board the Savannah 
when California was taken from the Mexicans; and Charlotte C., who married 
Lansford Hastings. The latter had several children, three of whom are now 
living, two sons residing in California, and Amelia L., who married the subject 
of this sketch. Mrs. Spence's mother's family came from Buenos Ayres in the 
early days of California, living in Sacramento and later in Monterey.
        In 1849, when the convention was in session at Monterey forming a 
constitution for California, prior to its admission into the Union, Mr. Hastings 
was a member of that body, a delegate from Sacramento, and during the exciting 
debates that took place in that memorable convention he took an active and 
important part. After his financial losses he went with his family, in 1857, to 
Fort Yuma, where he, with others, planned and laid out a town across the river, 
on which he built great expectations. Finding that his hopes were not realized, 
he returned with his family, in 1860, to San Francisco. His wife died soon 
afterward in San Leandro, in the house of her brother, William P. Toler. The War 
of the Rebellion soon afterward breaking out, Mr. Hastings left his children 
with their uncle, Mr. Toler, went South and entered the Confederate service as 
Quartermaster, serving until the surrender. He then went to Brazil, obtained 
from the Emperor Dom Pedro a grant of land sixty-nine miles square, on one of 
the branches of the Amazon River, with the condition that he would establish on 
the grant a certain number of families as emigrants. He succeeded in placing one 
steamship load of emigrants from the South on the grant, and returned to the 
United States for more. Loading another ship with emigrants, and, accompanied by 
his wife, he having married again, he died at sea while on the voyage to Brazil. 
His untimely end not only ruined the prospects of great promise to himself and 
family, but caused great distress to the emigrants. They, losing his active 
energy and counsel, did not succeed, nearly all of them being brought back to 
the United States some time afterward on a United States man-of-war sent out to 
rescue them from their position of isolation and suffering. Mr. Hastings was 
possessed of a large and liberal mind, great perseverance, and energy of 
character. Had he not been taken off at such a critical period of his endeavor, 
he might have made a great success of what proved under the circumstances a 
disaster.
        To Mr. and Mrs. Albert A. Spence have been born two children:. Albert 
Alexander, Jr., in 1882, and Minette Amelia, in 1886. Mr. Spence owns 3,000 
acres of land in Monterey County, near Salinas, part of his grandfather's 
estate. He has a beautiful home on the Alameda near Fremont Avenue, between San 
Jose and Santa Clara, which he purchased in 1884. Since that time his brothers, 
David and Rudolph, have built elegant residences adjoining him on the Alameda.
 
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, 
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 
1888.
Pg. 498-499