Bio: Messer, Cyrus & Livonia (Arrived in Spencer 1875)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Messer, Gatchell, Clark

Source: Spencer Centennial Book (1874 – 1974)

Mrs. Livonia Gatchell Messer, familiarly called Aunty Messer or Grandma Messer, was born in Lee, Maine, married Cyrus E. Messer and lived in Enfield, Springfield and Lincoln, Maine. Mr. Messer, who was a school teacher, also taught music and preached for the Baptist denomination. Mrs. Messer, then a widow, came with her father’s family to Black River Fall with her three children, Flora, Ernest and Ansel. Mrs. Messer had a tailor shop there and sewed pants for lumbermen. In 1875, having been persuaded by her borhter, Jeremiah, to go with him to Spencer, loaded her household goods into two wagons and started on a journey which was to take her over hazardous trails or “tote roads” winding through dense woods. Their last night on the trail was spent with a homesteader (named Clark) at Cole Corners, the only cabin they had seen since leaving Loyal. With an early start the next morning, they arrived in Spencer at 2:00 p.m. She moved into the back of her father’s store.