Franklin SPENCER

                   NAME:  Born Nicholas Perkins.  His parents both died when he was young.  He lived with his siblings in Missouri until he joined the Confederate Army.  After the war he changed his name to Franklin Spencer to avoid detection.  He took his wife to move west to Oregon, and stopped in Utah so his wife could recover from an illness.  They decided that they liked the people and decided to live there.  Further details of the life of this man Nicholas Perkins/Franklin Spencer are in PAF notes.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Franklin Spencer: Wanted Dead or Alive
In 1880 Franklin Spencer returned home honorably from serving in the West Tennessee Conference of the Southern States Mission. For the last couple months he was president of the Conference. But his honorable service hides the fact that Franklin Spencer was not his real name. His real name was Nicholas Summers Perkins Jr.

He was born on 26 June 1838 in Augusta, Bracken County, Kentucky to Nicholas Summers Perkins and Sarah Jane Bradford. His mother died in childbirth in 1841. A couple of years later, Nicholas Sr. took his children and followed his extended family to Missouri. But when gold was discovered in California, Nicholas Sr. was bitten by the bug. Leaving his children in the care of his sister in Missouri, he went west where he died in 1850.

Although Nicholas stuttered badly when he spoke he was very intelligent. So his career interests led him into teaching school and he studied to become a lawyer. All this came to an end with the start of the Civil War. Very much a Southern man he went to Tennessee, joined the Confederate Army, and was given a commission. Because of his native intelligence he was quickly promoted, eventually achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In his role he was involved in a watershed event in his life: the destruction of a railway bridge which resulted in the death of several Union soldiers.

After the war Nicholas returned to Missouri, but eventually had to leave in fear of reprisals for his Confederate past. It isn't clear whether these were government officials, bounty hunters or just bitter relatives of those he killed. Regardless, he moved to Pueblo Colorado, where he had sisters, and bought some land. It wasnt long before he was tracked down by a posse of 10 to 12 men led by J. H. Russell. In the fight Nicholas stabbed Russell who died three days later.

On the run once again, Nicholas took his new wife Sarah Jane Dodd, on the trail to Oregon. But along the way they stopped in Ogden, Utah to let Sarah recover from an illness. Impressed with the Mormons, Nicholas was baptized late in 1864. He changed his name to Franklin Spencer and the family settled in Manti. His devotion to his new faith was such that by 1874 he was asked to serve as the Bishop of Salina. He sat in the Utah State Legislature and was called to serve a mission to Tennessee, working in the area around Nashville. He ended his mission as president of the West Tennessee Conference just after the Branch at Cane Creek had been formed.

Following his mission he stopped in Kentucky and gathered genealogical records. After his return to Utah he took a second wife, and eventually a third, which put him on the run again. He spent the rest of his life in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, where he died in 1915. 


Posted by Bruce Crow on Amateur Mormon Historian Blog, July 22, 2009