I was recently asked to look into the history of a house and found the interesting story of Martha White Spalding. Martha was born in Neoga, IL in 1875, the daughter of William R White. Mr. White was a nearly self taught inventor, who patented and created a farm gate around the turn of the century. The gate could be opened and shut with out exiting your buggy, wagon or auto. It was after the White family moved to Bloomington IL that he was successful in producing the gate, and White made his great fortune.
He did not expect that his great fortune would lead to his daughter's ruin and misfortune. Martha, or Mattie, was wooed by John Bostwick Spalding, a young man aspiring to a medical career. They married in 1894 and moved to St. Louis so that Spalding could pursue his medical education. Martha gave him her entire inheritance of $10,000 to pursue his career. They lived in several places, including Clinton IL and Kenosha WI. It was in Kenosha and 1904 that Spalding filed for a divorce, abandoning his wife and daughter. After ten years of abuse, Mattie's physical health was very bad, and she had a six year old daughter to raise. She was awarded a small sum in alimony, too small to live on, and returned to Bloomington where she lived with her parents on East Street.
But Mattie was not content to accept the crumbs from her ex-husband's table and live like a pauper while her husband lived the life of a wealthy (and quickly remarried) surgeon in California. During the court battle she made the well known women of Kenosha very nervous. Spaulding was not popular for his medical skills alone! He had been involved with many of the wealthiest and most prominent women of the city while he lived there. The court had to suppress the court filings to protect the reputations of the Kenosha elite. For fifteen years Mattie fought to be recompensed for the investment she made in her husband's career. It was not until 1919 that the court in Kenosha found that Spalding had married her for mercenary reasons and awarded her a lump sum of $30,000.
In 1906 Mattie's father had died, leaving his estate to his remaining four children, leaving Mattie without his support and home. Between the time of her father's death and the long awaited marital settlement, Mattie rented the house at 1224 E Grove Street, which had been the home of farmer and descendant of a founding family of Bloomington, Harry Keeran. A newspaper article in 1914 indicates that Florence Wilder was suing Mattie White Spalding for back rent and that Mattie had relocated to Hinsdale. While living on Grove Street, Mattie listed her occupation as "truck farmer" in the 1910 census. No records of her activities were found in the Pantagraph.