Thomas G. Spear

(Born: 1806 - Died: November 5, 1879)

American printer, dry goods merchant and minor poet. He was married to Elizabeth B. Spear. He is listed in the 1850 Federal Census for Philadelphia as a dry goods merchant. The Clements Library of the University of Michigan has Spear’s diary for 1843-1848. Thomas G. Spear and his son Adrian may have gone to California about June 28, 1849. (They are listed in The Constitution, By-laws and List of Members of the Society of California Pioneers, San Francisco, 1888, pp. 97, 122, and 150. Adrian is noted as the son of Thomas G. Spear. Also listed is another Thomas Spear, noted as the son of Adrian. Thomas G. Spear is listed among deceased members, and Adrian as an ex-member.) Records for West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, PA, indicte burials for Thomas Spear, Flora O. Spear and Adrian Spear, but with no surviving details or headstones. (Flora Spear appears to have been the wife of Adrian. In a trial of 1885, she sued for the death of her husband, Adrian Spear, who was killed in an explosion of a steamboat at the Chestnut Street Wharf on August 17, 1885. She lost the case. Thomas G. Spear is listed as having died of paralysis in Oakland, CA, in November 1879. His age is listed as 73, and his profession as printer, but his birthplace is noted as Massachusetts. A burial record for Masonic Cemetery in San Francisco agrees with this death information, and lists the precise date as November 5, 1879. The 1860 Federal Census for San Francisco lists Thomas G. Spear, also as a printer, but age 50 and birth place as Pennsylvania. In spite of minor inconsistencies in details, these are all presumably the same person.)