According to Audrey Mae’s artistic cemetery map diagram and Audrey Mae’s gravestone numbering system, Walter’s gravestone is Gravestone Number Thirty-Seven. Using her Smith-Corona typewriter in the 1980s, Audrey Mae typed the following mini-biography of Walter Spencer and his siblings, seventh-generation Spencers in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

(2013 Update: More research is needed. Audrey Mae has Walter’s date of death as 6-19-1907 and Bruce MacGunnigle’s book has 6-18-1857, but the gravestone inscription clearly has 6-18-188_.  Anyone who has done this work knows how painstaking difficult and tedious this work is.  It is almost impossible to be correct 100% of the time. More research is needed.)

Walter born in 1854 is the son of John Anthony (gravestone No. 32) and Jamima Maxim (gravestone No. 31) Spencer.

Bruce MacGunnigle – 43

John Anthony is the son of Captain John (gravestone No. 4) and Phebe (née Vaughn) Spencer.  Captain John is the first son of Huldah (gravestone No. 1) and Patriot John (No. 2) Spencer.

Of the six children of John Anthony and Jamima in this graveyard, Walter is the only one of the six children to live beyond age 19.  Walter, being too young at the time of the Civil War, escaped that possible death sentence. According to Audrey Mae, he lived to be age 53, but more research is needed because of the discrepancy with different dates of death.  Still he died at a younger age than his parents, his grandparents, his great grandparents.

Audrey Mae’s mini-biography of Walter Spencer’s parents:

Audrey Mae draws a connecting line and writes the word “married” between the mini-biographies to show that both husband and wife are buried in the Spencer Family Cemetery. Audrey Mae draws a line and writes the word “children” show that gravestone 33,34,35,36 and 37 are the gravestones of John Anthony and Jamima Maxim’s children, Martha, Ella, Alice, John and Walter. The female children died so young.  Also, how tragic to have their son, John, who was in the Civil War died at age 19. Did he die in battle or sickness as 500,000 other soldiers had?

There were five John Spencers from this area of East Greenwich who fought in the Civil War.  Two were killed, two returned unscathed–if that were possible in battle–and one (Audrey Mae’s grandfather) had been a prisoner of war and paroled by Abraham Lincoln’s policy.

Audrey Mae, Edith Anna and John Edward do not descend from Captain John and Phebe. Audrey descends from Captain John’s brother, Richard Anthony (“Deacon”) and his daughter, Audra Eleanor, John Johnson Spencer’s mother.

“Spencer, Johnson, Goff and Vaughn descendants, if you have any additional information on Walter Spencer, please add a comment to this web site and the web site editor will add this to the site. Thanks.”