Spencer, Virginia

Spencer is an unincorporated community in Henry County, Virginia, United States. It takes its name from its earliest settler, James Spencer Sr., who moved from Loudon County to Henry County with his sons in the eighteenth century. Spencer's son James, Jr. died of wounds suffered at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. (On his death, his widow remarried Nathaniel Bassett.)

Spencer was the founding site of the Spencer Bros. Tobacco Company, as well as D.H. Spencer & Sons Tobacco, both begun by the Spencer family. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=SFYDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA375-IA1&lpg=PA375-IA1&dq=%22james+harrison+spencer%22&source=web&ots=U9MtLcjOLk&sig=HrfrCOuL023ub3DPFmhoszcFxyQ&hl=en James Harrison Spencer, Men of Mark in Virginia, 1908] ] The family-owned firm later became one of the nation's largest manufacturers of plug chewing tobacco with its well-known brand 'Calhoun' and others. The Spencer family built Grassdale Farm, their tobacco plantation beginning in the eighteenth century. Grassdale, once called "The Homestead," is on the National Register of Historic Places. [ [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/VA/Henry/state.html National Register of Historic Places] ]

The Spencer family also controlled the Danville & Western Railroad, which stopped in the town, as well as a small collection of other buildings, including a post office, doctor's house and other appurtenances. [ [http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Henry/044-0010_Grassdale_2002_Final_Nomination.pdf Grassdale, National Register of Historic Places] ] The family later sold their tobacco company to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=VmICAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA8-PA14&lpg=RA8-PA14&dq=%22r.+j.+reynolds%22+spencer+tobacco&source=web&ots=kTnBcNghDz&sig=ZfG2pmBNWUkaJr117Cy2LbtMD8c&hl=en The Tobacco Worker, Tobacco Workers International Union, 1907] ] R. J. Reynolds had grown up in nearby Critz, Virginia, and he and the Spencers were rivals. Grassdale Farm was once owned by Thomas Jefferson Penn, who built Chinqua-Penn Plantation outside Reidsville, North Carolina. The Spencer family and the Penn family are related (Jeff Penn's mother was Annie Spencer), and the Spencer coat-of-arms appears above the entry at Chinqua-Penn. 'Jeff' Penn sold Grassdale to his first cousin Margaret Dillard (Spencer) Shackelford and her husband Dr. John Armstrong Shackelford. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZtQTD_fYUQcC&pg=PA487&dq=%22margaret+dillard+spencer%22&lr=#PPA487,M1 Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present, Samuel A'Court Ashe, C. L. Van Noppen, Greensboro, N.C., 1908] ]

Spencer is part of the Martinsville Micropolitan Statistical Area.

References