Anson in the Civil War, meets some very famous people and comes to Minnesota. Chapter Four

Anson Martin Sperry was the youngest child born to the family of Bela and Matilda Sperry. He was born on August 22, 1836 in Claremont, New Hampshire. Anson saw his family unfold early in life and barely knew some of the members of his family. James left home in 1841 when Anson was only five years old and his older brothers all would have been working long hours at a young age. By the time Anson reached adulthood, most of his family had either died or moved away. His parents went from a life of hard work but relative comfort, to deep loss and poverty. He spoke at times, upon reflection, of the mediocrity of his sibling’s lives and of his father’s failures. Undoubtedly this was to become a driving force in his future endeavors.

Anson yearned for education and studied at every opportunity. He once quit a job when the supervisor banned any future studying on the job during breaks. As a learned young man, he began to teach at an early age and through his life. In the spring of 1861 Anson went to Meriden Academy to start the term with his friend O’Neal. Fort Sumpter had just fallen and the Civil War had begun. When they reached the Academy and heard the news, they hurried back some fifteen miles home and he signed his name to the muster roles. Arriving back home, he informed his parents of his decision and listened as his father went into a tirade about the horrible consequences of the keeping of slaves. Anson assured him that he had enlisted for three months time and the war would be over before July was out.

Bela died in October of 1861, a merciful passing for a man who suffered much in his life and spent the last many years in pain and mental decline. His wife Matilda moved in to live with the third child, Sophronia and Anson was home to assist the move and see the final loss of his family home. Without anything left to return to, Anson moved on with his life and lived a life of constant movement and many, varied occupations but ever an educator. He was honorably discharged from the military at the rank of Sergeant following his completion of his three month enlistment term.

From then, he served his nation honorably and diligently working for the Freedmen teaching hundreds of freed slaves and their children. He worked in battlefield relief of the military in a number of different roles and travelled the many roads of war, ever in harm’s way. At one point he roomed for several weeks with Frederick Brown, the brother of the infamous John Brown. Anson claims that Frederick was a ‘hopelessly negative person’ who stated that his brother John ‘had made a foolish mistake’ led on by his sufferings in Kansas and Anson found him to be simply impossible.

Anson later, by a simple incident of fate, joined with the newly formed Sanitary Commission formed by the Union to assist in the sanitary requirements of the newly formed recruitment camp flooded with men from all across the nation. The unsanitary conditions they found themselves in while awaiting training and assignment were certain to have killed as many as the war did, if not for the intervention of this group. Anson later became Chief of the Auxiliary Corps at the age of 28, having proven his intellect and caring nature for all those who suffered. It was during this period of his life that he had the occasion to meet and get to know Clara Barton. At a reunion meeting of the G.A.R. in 1905 at St. Paul, Minnesota, they had the opportunity to hold the press at bay for several hours while they reminisced and brought each other up to date on their lives. Anson also met President Lincoln on a couple of occasions during the period of his relief work.

In the summer of 1865, Anson spent a couple of months resting and recuperating in New Hampshire. He had planned to go to Harvard in the fall, but lacked the money. He registered anyway and just as the school year was starting, he got an offer to become the Texas agent for the Freedmen’s Bank, obtaining deposits and taking allotments from the Negro troops and Freedmen. He trained in New York and then went on to Texas about the time of Maximilian’s revolt and execution by Juarez. Here is where he would meet his future bride, Thirza, while she was teaching the black children. Thirza was from Wasioja, Minnesota and after the war, heeded the call for teachers to come south and teach the children of the Freedmen in New Orleans. She was later transferred to a school near Houston and while on the steamer boat trip, she met Anson Sperry.

Anson had sent Thirza home in 1867 fearing for her health and finally in October of 1868, they were reunited and married in Wasioja. Anson then took his new bride east to meet his mother and sisters, travelled on to Memphis where they lived for a time, then on to Boston and Cambridge in 1871. Anson seemed to be constantly travelling and they lived in many different cities. Early on in 1872, a letter to Thirza, from Anson’s mother referred to Nathaniel. She wrote, “I had a letter from Nathaniel. He wants to know when you get to Minnesota. He says he wants to see you. He wants Anson to spend some time with him during the hot season. He says, ‘Tell him I will let him have a gun, a fishing rod and line, and take him in a boat on these pleasant lakes, and I think I can make him a strong man.’. Anson had contracted Yellow Fever and a host of ailments during his travels during and after the war.

Early on in 1874 Anson was promoted to Cashier of the Freedmen’s Bank, and Thirza once again followed him with their three small boys to Washington D.C. where they lived for several years. In 1877 Anson once again visited Claremont, his sisters and their families before finally moving to Minnesota. Wasioja was to become their home, with and near Thirza’s family where he would teach school and farm. Their lot did not improve and with a small amount of acreage and some crop failures, they were sinking slowly into poverty. In 1880, Anson was offered a job to oversee two gold and silver mines near Leadville, Colorado and the money sent home from this endeavor helped to save the farm and elevate the living conditions.

Anson returned home and resumed his farming along with his teaching duties. In 1879, before going to Colorado, he had unsuccessfully run for County Superintendant of Schools. In 1882, he was elected to the position and held it for several years. He made many improvements to the schools and was a progressive educator. He eventually lost the position for several reasons, including his progressive stance which did not always sit well with others. His tenure in office brought him much success and he may well have continued that successful run, were it not for his brother James!

Anson’s brother James died in October of 1893 and Anson went to Wisconsin to tend to the final arrangements. Hallie wrote, “During his absence the county elections were held. The Republican Convention did not list his name because a friend of the opposing candidate, who also posed as our friend, went about saying that Sperry was not standing for reelection; so the field was left open and the election placed in office a man who always disparaged Sperry, having no sympathy with his advanced theories and his long tenure.” I am convinced that his election not only cost Anson the position he desired to keep, but was also one reason why Anson would not have tarried long in Wisconsin after James’ burial.

Anson returned to Wasioja and continued his farming and teaching career. His family grew up and moved on to careers and successes of their own. Thirza died in 1905 and Anson remained on the farm and his son Lloyd gave up his struggling law practice to come and share farm with him. One morning in January, 1907, the house burned to the ground and Anson moved in with his in-laws for a while. He moved into the granary after that until all of the farm equipment was sold. Anson moved around staying with his children in Milaca, Minnesota, Toronto, Canada and in November of 1907, to St. James to live with his daughter Grace and her family. He lived there for four years doing simple chores around the house and living a peaceful life.

Sometime during his stay in St. James, he ‘accomplished a cherished project in having tombstones placed in memory of his two woodsmen brothers – James in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and Nathaniel in Rockford, Minnesota. This meant travelling to each place, where he had the satisfaction of hearing the old-timers speak of each brother with high regard.’ In 1911, Grace’s marriage went sour and Anson moved to Mankato to live with his son Fred and travelled between family members until his death in 1916, the last and final chapter in the children of Bela Jarvis and Matilda Dow Sperry.

Anson Sperry was an incredible man who lived a life few could ever have dreamt possible. He saw and was involved in many dramatic events which shaped our nation to become what it is today. His story was written by his granddaughter and many of the events herein were taken from her book: ‘Anson and Thyrza Sperry; Unsung Epic’ by Dorothy Hodgman, daughter of Grace and Ralph Houghton Burns. The book is a compelling account of early life and the hardships from the time when Anson was a young boy in New Hampshire. I highly recommend the book if you are interested in such things as well as the beginning of the Red Cross and the struggles of the African American population after the Civil War.