Morillo Abial Spalding. In Morillo Abial Spalding the thriving community of Dearing, Montgomery County, has a citizen who has contributed to its upbuilding a conservative and reliable general mercantile business, who formerly, for eight years, carried on the drug business, and whose long experience in a commercial way has been a decided factor in helping his city to better things.
Mr. Spalding was born at Morrisville, Vermont, February 13, 1856, a son of A. W. and Mary (Tenney) Spalding, a grandson of Warren Spalding, a Vermont farmer who spent his life there, and a member of a family, which originating in England, was established in the Green Mountain State in Colonial times. A. W. Spalding was born in Vermont in 1836, and was there educated and reared. He grew up as a farmer and that vocation he adopted upon reaching manhood, subsequently continuing as a tiller of the soil throughout his life. In later years he moved to New Hampshire, and in that state his death occurred in 1896. He was a republican in his political views, a man who took a great interest in the welfare of his community, and one who had the respect and esteem of his associates. He was a faithful member of the Universalist Church. Mr. Spalding married Miss Mary Tenney, born in 1836, in Vermont, who died at Morrisville, that state, in 1896. There were three children in the family: Morillo Abial, of this review; Fred, who is a retired merchant and resides at Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Charles A., who still lives in New England.
After attending the graded and high schools of Morrisville, Vermont, from which latter he was graduated in 1872, Morillo Abial Spalding began work as a clerk in a shoe store, where he received his introduction to business methods and remained four years. At this time he answered to the call of the West and journeyed to Iowa and located at Hamburg, where for many years he was engaged in business and served as postmaster for three years. His next location was Kearney, Nebraska, where for three years he was engaged in teaching band music, and then went to Cook, Nebraska, where he embarked in the drug business, and continued therein until 1906. The next two years were spent at Tyro, Kansas, in a like enterprise, and in 1908 he located at Dearing, where he became the proprietor of a pharmacy and conducted it successfully for eight years, when, in 1916, he disposed of his drug interests in order to open his general mercantile business, which is now the leading establishment on the main street of the town. Mr. Spalding is possessed of the ability to make a success of whatever venture he undertakes, and has already built up a prosperous trade. He stands high in the public esteem and belief in his integrity and good judgment have been variously manifest. Politically he is a republican, but while a supporter of his party’s candidates and principles, has not cared to endeavor to push himself forward as a candidate for public preferment. He belongs to the Odd Fellows Lodge at Dearing, of which he is past noble grand, and to the Ancient Order of United Workmen in Nebraska.
In 1884, at Riverton, Nebraska, Mr. Spalding was married to Miss Mary Gooding, and they had one daughter: Lola, who married Mr. Peebles, cashier of a hardware and implement company at Spokane, Washington. In 1901 Mr. Spalding was married, at Riverton, to Miss Irene Harrop, daughter of the late James Harrop, a farmer. They have one daughter, Erbine, born September 8, 1904, who is attending the Dearing graded school.