Leonard Garfield Spencer (1867 - 1914)

Born 12 Feb 1867 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret Agnes (Allen) Spencer — married 8 Apr 1885 in St. Matthew's, Washington, D.C.

Died 15 Dec 1914 at age 47 in New York City, New York, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Michael Spencer [send private message]

Biography

Findagrave bio: son of Henry Caleb Spencer (1837-1891) and Sara Jane Andrews (1837-1909)

Brother: Henry "Harry" Caleb Spencer Jr. (1875–1946)

Wife: Margaret Agnes Kaiser (1864-1891) Married 4/8/1885 in Washington DC Child: Sara Allen Spencer (1887–1891)

Wife: Elizabeth Norris (1877-1941) Married 7/20/1892 in New York Children: Myrtle Lincoln Spencer Allen (1895–1921), Constance (infant born and died between 1895 and 1898), Ethel Leonora Spencer Yarbray (1898-1981) and Clara Barton Spencer (1902-1965)

Popular cylinder and disc recording artist of the 1890's and early 1900's.

Len Spencer was a recording artist of considerable interpretative skill and extra ordinary creative ability. He had a remarkable recording quality to his voice with wonderful flexibility and powers in differentiating in his character portrayals and marvelous dialetic ability. He was an original thinker, author of character sketches, writer of songs and vaudeville and minstrel performer. Len began working for the American Graphophone Company of Washington DC in 1886. He began his recording career in 1889. Although he is better known as a comedian, he also recorded popular ballads, hymns and abbreviated versions of speeches by famous people such as President McKinley. Besides recording as a solo artist, Len was a duet partner with Ada Jones and others, a member of the Len Spencer Trio (with Steve Porter and Billy Golden), member of the Greater New York Quartet (with Steve Porter, George Gaskin and Dan W. Quinn) and member of various vaudeville and minstrel sketch ensembles. When the popularity of his style of music declined, Len became a booking agent. Before his recording career, he was an associate instructor with his father in the Spencerian Business College in Washington.

Edison Phonograph Monthly, February 1915: Len G. Spencer's Funeral For years Len G. Spencer has delighted Edison audiences. His songs with Ada Jones and others were equally well known. His voice was a powerful baritone with a quality well fitted for record making. He passed away on December 15, 1914. Funeral services were held at the ‘Funeral Church' at the undertaking establishment of Frank A. Campbell, West Twenty-third Street, New York. Friends were notified, but were not apprised as to the character of the services, which came as a surprise to those present. They consisted simply of two phonograph selections in Mr. Spencer's own voice, made some years ago on Edison records and specially kept for this funeral service. In one Mr. Spencer's voice was heard to repeat the Lord's Prayer in a deep, slow, solemn tone. Then followed in the same voice, but in a somewhat higher tone the Twenty-Third Psalm. The unexpectedness of these records was a surprise to all except the immediate family. The body was afterwards cremated and the ashes buried at the family plot in Washington D.C. Mr. Spencer was 47 years old. He left a will in which are a number of $500 bequests to charitable institutions. The will also contained a provision that the records are to be preserved and next used at the tenth anniversary of his death. Many of Len Spencer's records still have a wide popularity and a steady sale.

Source: Jim Walsh article "Favorite Pioneer Recording Artists", Hobbies Magazine, March to August 1947 Source: Jim Walsh article "Leonard G. Spencer, As His Daughter Ethel Lovingly Recalls Him", Hobbies Magazine, July to October 1958

Sources

• with family and 9 sources: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MD5M-H6J

• Year: 1880; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: 122; Family History Film: 1254122; Page: 415B; Enumeration District: 041; Image: 0833

• Year: 1910; Census Place: Manhattan Ward 16, New York, New York; Roll: T624_1034; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0828; FHL microfilm: 1375047

• "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WHX-W7F : 3 June 2020), Leonard G. Spencer, 1914.

• "District of Columbia, Glenwood Cemetery Records, 1854-2013," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGRT-YMNT : 3 March 2021), Leonard Garfield Spencer, ; citing Burial, Washington, District of Columbia, United States, The Glenwood Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133823211/leonard-garfield-spencer