The collection consists mostly of business correspondence to/from Will Spencer, 1934-1938 (1.5 cubic ft. in Boxes 1-3). Will signed his letters as F.W. Spencer. The correspondence is in alphabetical order by surname or company name. Most of the correspondence is from Will to people who owned property in mid-Michigan inquiring if they would like to lease their land for gas/oil drilling to Phillips Drilling Company of Butler, Pennsylvania. Some of the correspondence is between Will and county officers about land that might be purchased for taxes, inquiries re: ownership of certain property, and requests to the Department of Natural Resources for plat maps. There are also some bills and receipts for maps or mapping. There are also occasionally requests to Spencer for some of his farm products. There is no personal correspondence in the collection.
Plat books in which specific properties are marked are found in Box 4 (a letter-size .25 cubic foot box). Also in this box is a publication on Fringe Wells of the Crystal-New Haven Files and the Beaverton Area, 1936, by C. Roe.
Box 5 (a legal-size .25 cubic foot box) includes miscellaneous materials related to Michigan oil exploration and leasing. Of note are lists of properties owned by Indigenous people in Denver and Isabella townships, Isabella County, which were available for oil or gas leases, 1934, 1936. People listed as holding this land include: Wellington, Joseph, and Israel Collins; Mary Conley; George Corbin; Mary Egleston; Mary Isaac; Johnson Jackson; Emma McClure; Jane Nottawa; Eliza and Mary Ann Pay-she-min-nee; Maria Pelcher; Lucy and E.(Earnest) Pontiac; William and Albert Strong. The 2021 addition is mostly housed in Box 5 and includes: 1934 miscellaneous; typed lists of oil well permits issued by the Michigan Department of Conservation, 1938; materials Spencer collected, created, or signed for Paul Odil including mostly copies of oil and gas leases and agreements, and correspondence, 1931-1933. ALso included are typed English 201 papers that Hazel Spencer wrote while attended Central State Teachers College, now Central Michigan University, in 1934.
Biography:
Frederick William “Will” Spencer was born on June 30, 1882, the eldest child of three born to Frederick and Emma Jane Spencer. Frederick the father had emigrated from England to the United States in 1870. He met and married Emma in Sterling, Illinois, in 1881. Will’s two younger siblings were Charles A., born in 1883, and Emma L., born in 1887. The children attended school and helped their father grow and peddle vegetables after school. In 1897 the family began to garden on a larger scale with a five -acre farm and eventually the brothers expanded their farming operation, renting an additional 300 farm acres.
In 1907 Will and Charles had a double wedding at Dixon Brethren Church on December 8th. Will married Leona Kindig and Fred married Myrtle. After the wedding, Will developed a Holstein herd and earned more than $30,000. Will and Leona then moved to Michigan and bought some farms. One of these was a 180-acre farm located half-a-mile west of Shepherd, Michigan, called Maple Grove Seed Farm. Fred and Myrtle also moved to Michigan: they purchased a 100-acre farm three miles north of Shepherd in 1910. From at least 1934 to 1938, Will functioned as an oil drilling agent for Phillips Drilling Company of Butler, Pennsylvania. Multiple mid-Michigan counties were explored for oil and gas including Clare, Clinton, Isabella, Gladwin, Gratiot, Ionia, Kent, Mecosta, Missaukee, Montcalm, Newaygo, Ogemaw, Saginaw, Shiawassee, and Washtenaw counties.
Leona and Will had one daughter, Hazel, who married Russell Kelley and had three children: Bill, the donor of this collection, David, and Nancy. Will and Leona both died in 1947. Myrtle died in 1966. In 1967 Charles married Daisy Methner of Colman, Michigan, where he resided in his old age. Charles and Lila both were alive in 1970. (This information is from Memories of the Spencer’s 100 Years in U.S.A, 1970, by Charles Spencer, a copy of which is found in the collection.)
