Spencer, Franklin Fayette

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Franklin Fayette Spencer Soundex Code S152

Franklin Fayette Spencer, (1817-1890), Vice-President of the hardware firm of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company, and an old and honored citizen of Chicago died at his residence, No. 1601 Michigan Avenue, yesterday afternoon after a short illness.

Mr. Spencer was at his office desk the Saturday prior to his death, but feeling more than usually fatigued he left for his home, and from that time he failed steadily, the weakness attendant upon his advanced age being tried by a congestive chill, which was the direct cause of his death.

The funeral was to be held at 2:00 p.m. Monday afternoon from the First Presbyterian Church.

Franklin Fayette Spencer was born in Perryburg, N.Y. on October 18, 1817, where his father was the proprietor of a general merchandise store. The family removed during Mr. Spencer’s childhood to Gowanda, N.Y., where he received an academic education. Leaving school, he entered the employ of his father, who had established a store at Gowanda. In 1840, Mr. Spencer came to West and pre-empted a claim on the Rock River in this State before the government surveys had been made in that region. There for several years, he led the somewhat wild and adventurous life natural at that place and time.

Upon his father’s death, he returned to Gowanda and assumed control of the store. In 1843, Mr. Spencer was married to Rachel Gifford Macomber at Dartmouth, Mass. Several years later, he started for the West, stopping for a short time in Ohio, and reaching Chicago, which has since been his home, in 1885.

Mr. Spencer’s sister had married Mr. Root of Bufalo, the junior member of the firm of Jewett & Root, stove dealers of that city, and it was as the representative of that firm that Mr. Spencer first engaged in business in Chicago. He opened a branch establishment on South Water Street, but a fire caused the removal of the store to River Street, where Mr. Spencer carried on business until 1865. In that year, in connection with Mr. Hibbard, he bought out the firm of Tuttle, Hibbard & Co., wholesale hardware dealers at State and Lake Streets. He was a member of that firm and the succeeding house of Hibbard & Spencer until the great fire (1871) which swept everything out of existence. Mr. Spencer and others worked all through the dreadful night, but saved only the firm books and papers and an insignificant quantity of goods, which they stored on the Lake Front under cover of a slight shed.

Immediately afterwards, undaunted by the disaster and unmoved by the doubt and uncertainty that followed, the firm laid in an immense stock of goods, its credit being unlimited, and proceeded to rebuild its business and rehabilitate the fortunes of the house.

In 1883, the business was incorporated under the present name of Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Co., one of the two or perhaps three largest establishments in its own trade in the country or in the world. Mr. Spencer never held a public office nor was he at any time officially connected with any charitable institution, yet at the same time there is barely a charity in the city that has not known his generosity. He gave with a lavish hand to all institutions established for the benefit of his fellow-men and his hand was never withheld in the bestowal of private alms.

He was an attendant at the First Presbyterian Church, which at all times has known the full measure of his benevolence.

Mr. Spencer was of thoroughly domestic tastes and preferred the fireside of his home to all else. He leaves two children—Mrs. Augustus N. Eddy and Mrs. Arthur J. Canton, Mrs. Spencer died three years ago.

In Mr. Spencer’s death, the poor lose a faithful, generous friend. His liberality was of the old-fashioned Bible kind; not theoretical, not prompted or restrained by the teachings of political economy, but brotherly, fatherly, quick, and unquestioning. “Is he suffering? Can I give relief?” If yes, then that strong, gentle hand sought its ever-ready purse, and giver and receiver were both the happier. One who knew him most intimately says that probably not a man in Chicago gave as much in unseen charity as did Mr. Spencer.

His hospitality might be called by the unflattering term luxurious; but that it was, for the poor as well as for the rich. Nothing was too good for the humblest friend or neighbor. To be sick, poor, near him and known to him was to be safe from hunger and sure even of the dainties so precious to the invalid.

The saying, “business is business,” in the ordinary sense of the phrase—that it is alien to conscience, charity, considerateness, sympathy, affection—was foreign to his tongue and to his nature. He was a great businessman; he did his full part in building up more than one splendid mercantile establishment. Yet, to him, business was also scrupulous fairness, frankness, kindness, benevolence, and benefice. Those that knew him best loved him most. In the phrase of a co-worker, “he was a man in a million.”

In the book, Seventy - five Years of Hibbard Hardware, Franklin F. Spencer is introduced on page 31:

"... Mere chance often brings men together to become acquainted and help shape one another's destinies. Right next door to the original location of Tuttle, Hibbard & Co. was the office and warehouse of Jewett & Root, manufacturers of stoves, at Buffalo, and represented in Chicago by Franklin F. Spencer. Like Mr. Hibbard, Mr. Spencer had worked as a youngster in his father's general store in New York state.

Possibly because of congeniality due to the similarity of their backgrounds, the two men formed a strong friendship which led to their business partnership. It was a happy combination, for each had traits that supplemented the other's. Their friends used to observe that even their whiskers were charmingly free from wasteful duplication, inasmuch as Hibbard's were mainly on his chin and somewhat sedate, while Spencer's were gayly festooned at each side, a sort of elaboration of his moustache, with the chin itself clean-shaven. Spencer, from the first, devoted himself mainly to credits, in which line he was a genius. It is said that because of his intuitive gift, he could talk with a new customer for five minutes and say: "You look good to me. If you want credit up to $4,000 or $5,000 you can have it." And his quick estimates were uncannily dependable. Along with this ability for judging character was an exceptional capacity for making friends. He was genial, warm-hearted and generous. After the business had grown to sizable proportions, whenever a young woman employe got married, his associates used to laugh and say: "Watch Spencer now or he'll give her the entire store."

Whenever he heard of anybody in need, his invariable question was: "Is there anything I can do to help?"

His purse was ever open to those less fortunate than himself. It was said that nobody in Chicago gave so much to unseen charity.

He lived somewhat luxuriously for those days and whenever his family had an out-of-season delicacy on the table, he was sure to mention several friends with whom he would like to share it.

So interested was Spencer in enlarging his list of friends that he not only was noted for his cordial handshake, but for years used a little drawing of an extended hand as part of his signature.

Nothing was too serious for him to turn to a joke. One day he came into Hibbard's private office to announce that he had just bought a lot in Graceland cemetery right across the drive from Hibbard's lot.

"You know," he said, "we have been such near neighbors and good friends for all these years, as well as partners in the hardware business, that I thought it would be fine, when our work is all done, for us to be so close together." Then, a moment later, he added: "I've got a notion, Hibbard, to have the lots connected by a tunnel under the driveway. In that way it might be a little easier to keep in touch with one another."

It was shortly after Mr. Spencer had entered the firm that the first traveling salesman began to make trips representing Hibbard & Spencer. He made his headquarters at Waterloo, Iowa.

Each spring and fall he visited the principal towns in Iowa. For several years that was all the sales effort outside of the home office that the firm made, a far cry from the situation today, when Hibbard hardware is aggressively sold in nearly all parts of the United States, besides a considerable export business to Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, and South America.

Tuttle, Hibbard & Co. had gone through a fire and panic, and Hibbard & Spencer were compelled to accept the shrinkage of values following the Civil War. But by 1867 their sales had grown to such proportions that they moved from their Lake street quarters to a new store at 92-94 Michigan avenue, with double the previous floor space, and steam elevators. The business was beginning to hit its stride. ..."