Archives West Finding Aid

Almon Spencer was born in February 1838. He left Spencerville, Ontario, in 1864 to move to California, taking passage by sea across the Panama Isthmus, traveling with his friends Peter Irving and Edward Short. Arriving in San Francisco, they continued on to Sacramento, Nevada, and Idaho, then to Montana. They stayed for a time in Helena (Last Chance) before moving over the mountains in 1865 to a gold claim in Gallatin County. He set up a ranch, was joined by his brother Harvey in 1868, and took an interest in a meat market in Cave Gulch. In 1872, they abandoned the mine and moved into Cave. Almon returned home to marry his wife, Margaret Ann Stitt, in 1873, and brought her back to Montana. They remained in Cave until 1878, when they moved to White Sulphur Springs, where he was appointed postmaster that same year. The Spencer brothers started a business there, Spencer and Company, in 1881, which remained in business until 1903, when it consolidated with the Anderson Brothers.