Wealthy Gore Spalding

Wealthy Ann Gore Spalding

Wealthy Ann Gore was born on Aug. 10, 1767, in Connecticut, possibly in Norwich , the second of five children of Obadiah Gore Jr. (1744-1821), whose portrait is in the North Room of this museum, and Anna Avery (1744-1829). Wealthy Ann came to Ulster township with her parents in 1783, when she was 16 years old.

Wealthy Ann Gore married John Spalding on Oct. 1, 1783, in Sheshequin. Theirs was the first marriage of a white couple performed in Sheshequin.

John Spalding was born on Nov. 14, 1765, in Plainfield, CT, the second of eight children of Simon Spalding (1742-1814) and Ruth E. Shepard (1741-1806). He was a fifer in his father's company during the Revolutionary War. He accompanied his father on Gen. Sullivan's campaign against the indigenous people in the Susquehanna and Chemung River valleys in 1779. He was later commissioned a colonel in the State Militia.

John Spalding came to Sheshequin with his parents and most of his siblings in March, 1783, when he was 18 years old. He was enumerated in Luzerne county – probably Ulster - in 1790, and in Ulster township in 1800, 1810, and 1820. John and Wealthy probably lived in Sheshequin for all of their adult lives.

Col. John Franklin wrote in his diary on Sunday, July 11, 1790, that he went to "Col. Spalding's" to hear the Universalist minister Noah Murray preach. "Col. Spalding" was presumably John Spalding. John Spalding's son Noah might have been named after Noah Murray, who arrived in Athens the year Noah Spalding was born. John Spalding died before the earliest surviving Sheshequin Universalist church records were made. He may have been associated with the Universalist society in its early years.

Spalding served in various public offices in Sheshequin in the late 1790's and early 1800's, and he was a frequent party to petitions for roads to be built in the township. He owned a grist mill which apparently was near the mouth of Spalding Creek, about a mile north of the p/d SUS meeting house.

Wealthy Ann and John had fourteen children, all of whom were born in Sheshequin:

• Col. Harry S. Spalding (1784-1821) married Lemira Satterlee (1790-1874); died in Towanda

• William Bela Spalding (1786-1848) married Delight Spalding (1790-1844), a distant relative; died in Corpus Christi, TX

• Noah Spalding (1788-1835) married Huldah Kellogg (1790-1874); died in Towanda

• Obadiah Gore Spalding (1790–1847) married Clotilda Hoyt (1795-1834); moved to Monroe, MI, in the 1830s and died there

• Simon Spalding (1792-1814) died at age 22

• Sarah/Sally Spalding (1794-1877) married Gen. Henry Welles (1780-1833); both of their portraits are in the North room of this museum

• Ulysses Spalding (1796-<1850?) married Jane A. Smith (1803->1850); died in Peru, LaSalle county, IL

• Wealthy Ann Spalding (1798-1833) married Luther Carner (1797-1850); died in Sheshequin

• George W. Spalding (1800-1840) married Prudence Brown (1800-1841); died in Byron, IL

• John Avery Spalding (1802-1842) married Amanda Tracy (1803-1888); lived in Penn Yan and other towns in upstate New York; died in Yates county, NY

• Charles Miner Spalding (1804-1858) married Jane Crawford (1812-1851) "whom he rescued from the Indians"; died in Bastrop county, TX

• Zebulon Butler Spalding (1807-1870) married Keziah B. Ovenshire (1821-1871); both were members of the Sheshequin Universalist church and were buried in the Sheshequin Valley Cemetery

• Avery Gore Spalding (1810-1835) died at age 25, probably in Monroe, MI

• Mary Ann Spalding (1812-1831) died at age 19; buried in the Sheshequin Valley cemetery

John Spalding died on Feb. 19, 1828, in Sheshequin and was buried in the Sheshequin Valley cemetery.

In 1830 Wealthy lived in Sheshequin with several of her children. In 1840 and 1850 she lived with her son Zebulon Butler Spalding and his family in Sheshequin. She died on Jan. 2, 1854, in Sheshequin. She was buried with her husband in the Sheshequin Valley Cemetery.

References

• Heverly, Clement C. Pioneer and Patriot Families of Bradford County. Bradford Star Print, Towanda, PA. 1913 & 1915

• Murray, Louise Welles. A History of Old Tioga Point and Early Athens. Raeder Press, Wilkes-Barre, PA, 1908

• Heverly, Clement C. History of Sheshequin. Bradford Star Print, Towanda, PA, 1902 Spalding, Rev. Samuel Jones (1872); Charles Warren Spalding (1897). Spalding Memorial: A Genealogical History of Edward Spalding …and His Descendants. American Publishers' Association, Chicago, IL, 1897

• Findagrave.com

• Bradford Argus, Towanda, PA

Katie Replogle

9/2/25