Response to Reader Question: Where did Allie Gather Her Flowers?

In her latest diary entry, 1874 Ypsilanti teen diarist Allie McCullough wrote: May 30 Sat. Did quite a little work this morning. Carrie N. came down about three in the afternoon and we took the horses and went to Spencer's Woods for flowers. Had a jolly time. Got home about six o'clock and then went to work and made a rockery and put the vines and flowers in it.

Kind reader Mr. V. asked, "'We took the horses and went to Spencer's Woods for flowers.' Do we know where Spencer's Woods is?"

A check of the 1874 plat map (drawn in the same year Allie wrote her diary; click image for larger view) reveals that there were extensive Spencer landholdings just east of Ypsilanti (outlined in orange). There are four landholding Spencers shown. Grove Spencer, Sr. was Ypsilanti's first lawyer, and dead for twenty years by 1874, though his widow Emily lived until 1887. Grove Jr. and Clinton were two of Grove Sr.'s sons. Clinton became Ypsi postmaster in 1871--a one-legged postmaster, whose injury at Gettysburg led to an amputation at the hip. Dunno about the "Wright" shown, without checking down at the Archives.

On the 1856 plat map (drawn two years after her husband Grove's death), Mrs. Spencer owns almost all of the land later apparently parcelled out, on the 1874 map, to Grove. Jr., Clinton, and perhaps Wright.

Since Grove was deceased, and if his aging widow Emily continued to reside on the parcel on top in the 1874 map, it seems reasonable to suppose that her land might have become overgrown or rewooded in spots. It is a large land plot, and (if none of Grove, Sr.'s children farmed the widow's plot), likely the least farmed parcel of the 4 Spencer parcels in 1874. Grove's widow's plot might have the greatest likelihood of having patches or stretches of woods. Twenty years, the time since Grove's death, is plenty to grow large trees.

And it seems from this 1909 recollection that Grove's original farm was widely known as "The Spencer Farm": "One of the Officiating Lawyers, Mr. Grover Spencer, when I first saw the Village of Ypsilanti, was the father of the present citizen, well known in this community by the name of Richard Spencer, the stock buyer. His father's family when I came here lived just East of the little Village on a farm that is still known to many as the Spencer farm." Given the high community profile of this farm, it seems fairly possible that "Spencer Woods" was part of the original Spencer Farm.

Grove's widow's parcel would have been accessible to Allie, as it is near her home in the 5th Ward and just down Michigan Ave.

There is a Spencer Cemetery at Michigan Ave. and today's Spencer Lane (Google map), which runs just east of Willow Run School. One large memorial stone stands on the northeast side of the streets' intersection. It includes the names:

SPENCER, Emily H. d. 1887 75y
Grove [elder lawyer Grove's son] d. 8-29-1881 48y
Kate d/o G & N Spencer, d. 8-22-1853 4m
Phebe w/o Burke Spencer, 1836-1925
Lydia Ann, 1842-1910
Wirt s/o G & E Spencer, d. 12-21-1848 2y

It is said that this cemetery was never moved...but that just the headstones were removed, and that it is a burial ground to this day.

Excerpt from the report by the ladies who rediscovered and saved this cemetery's memorial stone:

"When Pat showed me the stone, we both felt that we had to do something about this. I called around in Ypsilanti and the Township. No one even knew of the cemetery or a memorial stone. I ended up talking to the Cemetery Licensing Dept. in Lansing, MI. The information they gave me stated the cemetery was listed as inactive in 1968. I asked about the memorial stone and where were the gravestones. They stated that it appears when the Willow Run School Administration Buildings were built, the gravestones were disposed of and the buildings built over the cemetery! I asked why the graves weren't moved to another cemetery and was told they probably checked and there were no remains left. The bones disintegrated after so many years. So there would have been nothing to move. (Hmmm . . .)"

Given the community's label of Grove's farm as "The Spencer Farm," its nearness to Allie's home, the ease of her reaching it via Michigan Ave, and the possible overgrown parts on the widow's portion, it seems reasonable to suggest that the widow's portion, north of Michigan Ave., and within sight of the modern-day Willow Run High School, was where Allie gathered her flowers.