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J.F. Spruce family opened their Floresville home to abandoned children

A Methodist minister, 300 acres, and 19 orphans




J.F. and Elizabeth Spruce are surrounded by many of the orphans they took into their home. When his health declined in 1916, the former Methodist pastor found homes for all the children. He died in 1923 and is buried in the Floresville City Cemetery.

J.F. and Elizabeth Spruce are surrounded by many of the orphans they took into their home. When his health declined in 1916, the former Methodist pastor found homes for all the children. He died in 1923 and is buried in the Floresville City Cemetery.

Wilson County once was home to an orphanage run by J.F. Spruce; though never a formal orphanage, it is the only known orphanage to have operated in Wilson County. Fulfilling God’s Word to show compassion compelled the Spruce family to take in 19 orphans in the early 1900s, and provide godly homes for them in one of the worst times for orphaned children. Joseph Fleming “J.F.” Spruce was a man of unwavering faith and undoubted conviction, who opened his doors and changed these children’s lives forever, perhaps even saving their lives.

The orphanage started out in Sunny Side, and was later moved to the west side of the San Antonio River, 5 miles northwest of Floresville.

When he was 7 years old, J.F. Spruce — born in Griffin, Ga., in 1852 — moved with his family to a farm 8 miles north of Troupe, Texas, where he grew up. He married Elizabeth Hearn White in August 1873 in Troupe; he was 21. J.F. bought a farm nearby and became a licensed local Methodist preacher. Five sons were born to them, but only two made it to adulthood: Robert Elmer and John Henry.

 

 

The Holiness movement was unfolding in the South; so great was the movement’s impact on many Christians, that the churches were inadequate to accommodate it. Because of this, camp meetings were held in many places.

J.F. attended such a meeting in Scottsville, near his home, where he met the Rev. John S. Keen of Kentucky. Keen was president of a Bible school in Highway, Ky. (1891-1905). J.F., then 42, along with his wife and their two sons, moved to Highway; his wife and sons attended the school. After four years, the Spruces moved back to Troupe.

In the mid-1890s, six families from the Troupe area moved to the Sunny Side community, about 10 miles east of Floresville. In 1895, the Spruce family sold their farm in Troupe and also moved to Sunny Side, where they bought 200 acres and settled.

Elmer bought 200 acres adjoining his father’s land. J.F. began preaching three Sabbaths each month at the Sunny Side Methodist Church; Brother James A. King of the Floresville Methodist Church preached the fourth Sabbath.

Rev. Keen visited J.F. in Sunny Side; after returning to Kentucky, he decided to move to South Texas with his family and open a new Bible school. He sold his school in Kentucky to William H. Evans, who managed orphans there and ran the school until it closed in 1905. The Keen family and 35 or 40 others from Kentucky arrived in Sunny Side in 1897. A new Bible school was built on 10 acres either donated or sold by Wiley Woolsey, Robert Elmer’s father-in-law. It operated from 1899 to 1901 and was the largest boarding school in Wilson County.

J.F. then was accused of false teaching by Methodist ministers of the San Antonio District Conference. His accusers did not accept his teaching of Holiness movement theory and excommunicated him. J.F.’s membership and local preacher’s license were rescinded.

In 1907, J.F. took in 19 children, abandoned by the owner of the Bible school in Highway, Ky. The owner’s deserted wife, Myrtle L. Evans, along with five of her own children, and the 19 orphans —13 boys and six girls — rode the Orphan Train from Kentucky to San Antonio. J.F. took them to a large house in Sunny Side he had built for them.

A large schoolhouse near the orphanage doubled as a church for J.F. to preach the Holiness gospel. The private school was for the orphan children, but some neighbors also sent their children. Robert Elmer Spruce was a teacher, along with Bettie Crow and Helen Mullinger.

In 1910, J.F. and Robert Elmer went prospecting in Mexico. Robert Elmer sold all his land; J.F. sold 300 acres of his own land. On their return, each bought 300 acres along the San Antonio River 5 miles northwest of Floresville.

J.F. built a large two-story home with upstairs and downstairs porches that wrapped three sides of the house. It had 13 rooms for the orphans and family members. The orphans lived upstairs. The 1910 census records the Spruce home as Rebobath Children’s Home. The Spruces simply opened their home to a group of orphans. It was never an official ministry of any church, but rather an act of generosity and social ministry, carried out by a Christian family for children in need.

J.F.’s health started to decline in 1916; he decided to close the orphanage and relocate the children. Through the help of a friend, Rev. J.E. Fryer, each boy was placed in a Christian home where he could work for his expenses. J.F. and his wife took the girls to Hamlin, Texas, and enrolled them in a school. They all lived in Hamlin for many months, letting the girls adjust to the school and get acquainted in the community. Eventually, they found families willing to take in one girl each to live with them and become like a family member. J.F. and his wife lived in Hamlin for a while longer, then returned to Floresville.

After J.F. and his wife left for Hamlin, Robert Elmer and his wife moved into J.F.’s big house. J.F. and Elizabeth, upon their return, moved in with Robert Elmer and his family. J.F started attending the Floresville Methodist Church, which Robert Elmer and his family already attended. Both families eventually became members of the Floresville Methodist Church.

J.F. died June 5, 1923. His wife died Feb. 18, 1932. They are buried in the Floresville City Cemetery.

During the 1940s, Robert Elmer leased part of his farm to the government for an air base; he was later forced to sell that part of his farm. Robert Elmer eventually sold the rest of the farm and moved first to San Antonio, then — in the late 1940s — to Bethany, Okla., where he died in January 1964.

One orphan, Paul Seay, maintained contact with the Spruce family. He got married in the home in which he had been placed, and returned to Wilson County; he and his wife lived on Robert Elmer’s farm and worked until the Spruces retired and moved to San Antonio. Seay continued to visit the Spruces in Oklahoma up until their deaths.

Mark Cameron is thankful for the Spruce family’s help with this article. Mark grew up in the Camp Ranch community in Wilson County and graduated from Floresville High School. The military veteran is a member of the Wilson County Historical Society and contributes occasional articles to the Wilson County News.

The house J.F. Spruce built

Robert Elmer Spruce’s wife, Elizabeth Woolsey Spruce, described the house J.F. Spruce built for his family and the 19 orphans he took in:

“It was painted white, built upon a small hillside with a lovely view. Vines covered some of the large porches both up and down stairs. The yard glowed with many brilliant flowers and a beautiful white picket fence matched the white painted house. It could be seen from several miles and often our friends passing on the highway 3 or 4 miles away would tell us they usually looked for our home across the San Antonio River.”

Orphans

Some of the orphans taken in by J.F. and Elizabeth Spruce were Alma Safford, Louise Hamilton, Ada Sidwell, Effie Richards, Ruth Enlow, William Porter, Virgil Savage, Claude Savage, Charlie Anderson, and Paul Seay.

They traveled to Texas with Myrtle L. Evans and her children: Lawrence, Walter, Herman, Lottie E. or Charlotte, and Agnes Maria.