English: Postal Date: September 14, 1856, Coffee Creek, Indiana [presumed to be cancelled at Coffee Creek given letter written from that location]

Scott Catalog Number of Postage Stamp: 11, Manuscript Cancellation Collection: Steven R. Shook

SENDER: George H. Spooner Coffee Creek, Indiana

RECIPIENT: Mrs. Geo. H. Spooner. Worcester, Mass. (56 Southbridge st)

REMARK: This envelope contains a letter written by George Herbert Spooner on September 21, 1856, to his wife Mary M. (Thayer) Spooner in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, from Coffee Creek, Porter County, Indiana.

Two Coffee Creek post offices existed in Porter County and this letter was posted from the second post office. The first post office operated from Jesse Morgan's inn located along the south side of present day Porter Avenue in Chesterton, slightly east of Dickinson Road. It existed between 1835 and 1849, and when discontinued the mail was routed to the Calumet post office located at New City West (now referred to as the Tremont area northeast of Chesterton).

The second Coffee Creek post office operated from 1850 to 1870 and was located near the downtown area of present day Chesterton, Indiana. This second Coffee Creek post office was renamed Chesterton on January 24, 1870.

George Herbert Spooner was born at Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1833, the son of Stevens Spooner and Mary Angela (Negus) Spooner. He married Mary M. Thayer at Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1854. Mary was the daughter of Ephraim Thayer and Adah M. (Mathewson) Thayer and was born November 17, 1836, at Hartford County, Connecticut. Prior to 1860 George and Mary had moved to Clifton, Iroquois County, Illinois.

Mary died in 1874 in Clifton and is buried in Clifton Cemetery. George perished in a tragic accident. On December 29, 1876, George was a passenger on Train No. 5 of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, which originated in Buffalo, New York, with a Chicago destination.

The train consisted of the locomotive, two baggage cars, two day passenger coaches, two express coaches, a drawing room car, three sleeper cars, and a smoker car. As the train and its 160 passengers crossed the Ashtabula River in Ohio, the iron bridge spanning the river collapsed sending the entire train into the waters below.

Oil lanterns and coal-fired heating stoves soon ignited the wooden railcars and many of the passengers perished in the fire. Other victims drowned under debris. Approximately 90 people were killed in the disaster, including George Herbert Spooner, who perished in the car named City of Buffalo. One newspaper column concerning the disaster mentions that George was traveling to California. The wreck ranks as the third deadliest rail disaster in U.S. history. At the time of his death, George was a resident of Petersham, Massachusetts.

Note that a woman named Clara Thayer from Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, was also killed in the Ashtabula disaster. Clara may have been related to George's wife, Mary.

Note that the University of Michigan's Clements Library maintains an archive referred to as the George and Mary Spooner Family Collection (1842-1882).

Sources: The Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois; January 6, 1877; Volume , Number , Page 2, Column 6. Column titled "Ashtabula. The Bodies of Several Additional Victims Identified."

National Republican, Washington, D.C.; January 4, 1877; Volume 17, Number 32, Page 2, Column 5. Column titled "And Still Another."

Rutland Herald, Rutland, Rutland County, Vermont; January 5, 1877; Volume 16, Number 157, Page 3, Column 6. Column titled "The Ashtabula Disaster."

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