Joseph Franklin Spinney

• General Notes
  • Joseph received his education in the "Little Red School House" in Wakefield, Massachusetts, located near the so-called "Spinney Meeting House".
    Leaving home at an early age he learned the trade of making shoes, at a time when nearly all shoes were hand made. He went "West" when he was about twenty years old, was there only a short time when the war broke out, so he entered the ranks there on May 25, 1861, enlisting at Peoria, Illinois, as a private in Company E, 17th Illinois Infantry, and remained in the military for three years.
    He was in several engagements including Fort Donaldson and in the Battle of Shiloh, where he was severely wounded on April 5, 1862. He was taken to the hospital and from there to the private residence of a man named James Tarlton, whose home was on Clarke Street in St. Louis, Missouri, where he received the kindest treatment, being cared for by Mr. Tarlton's two daughters, Jennie and Lillie. Judy Phillips, author of Spinney Family Genealogy: Genealogy of Thomas Spinney and Margery Randall, has in her possession the A Dagerorreotype containing the likeness of these two girls.
    Joseph was discharged from the army as an invalid on August 2, 1862 at Boliver, Tennessee and returned to Rorchester, then after all the tender nursing, married the "Girl he left behind him", Helen A. Wentworth on February 9, 1863.