Martha May Kann Spahr

Martha was the daughter of Daniel and Lydia Mills May, who lived in Strinestown and later near May’s Meeting House near Admire, Dover Township, and from there to Mt. Wolf, Pa. Martha was the sixth of nine children. Her brothers and sisters in order of their birth are Mary, Harry, Jesse, Eliza, William, Martha, Maria, David, and Ellen.

Jacob and Martha lived on the Rodgers farm a short time after their marriage and then they bought a farm in the New Mexico Territory in 1910 to establish a home there. Roman remembers of being told of the two mules his Dad had, one named Coalie, and Roman, being a small child, would roll in the sandy New Mexico soil and say, “Here rolls Coalie”. Jacob, being informed of his father’s death and discouraged with poor farming conditions, and the unfriendliness of the Mexican people, moved back to his home place in Pennsylvania and bought his father‘s farm. Later, Jacob traded his farm in New Mexico on a Kissel touring car at the Basom Car Company in Dillsburg. Jacob was a very progressive man and wanted to provide his children with as many opportunities as possible, and he had a vocation picked for each child. When Bessie was in her mid-teens, he bought a reed organ and hired an instructor to teach the four oldest children to play. The two boys and youngest sister soon became disinterested and quit, but Bessie continued with the lessons and in later life, became a church organist. Jacob continued farming until he developed an illness and departed from this life July 27, 1925, eight months before the birth of his youngest son. At the time of his death, Jacob was Supervisor of Dover Township.

Clarence executed many of the details of the sale of his Dad’s farm the following summer, and Martha and her children moved to the village of Davidsburg. During World War II she had five sons and two sons-in-law in the service of our country. In 1943, she moved to what is now 4830 Carlisle Road, Dover, Pa., where she lived until failing health, which was caused by a stroke, compelled her to live in the care of her daughters. Finally, becoming completely invalid, Martha spent her last days in the hospital at Pleasant Acres, York County’s Home for the Aged.

Jacob and Martha are buried in Salem Union Church Cemetery, in the area east and south of Salem Union Church R.D.2, Dover, Pennsylvania.