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Encyclopedia Dubuque

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SPENSLEY, Harker Brentnal, Sr.

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Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/83988976:60525?tid=&pid=&queryId=d58a957a5a0b7a98383a00a041da01fb&_phsrc=LFI79&_phstart=successSource

Photo courtesy: Courtesy of the Spensley descendants of Col. D. E. Lyon.
430 Alpine. Photo courtesy: Old House Enthusiasts' Club House Tour, 2000

SPENSLEY, Harker Brentnal Sr. (Mineral Point, WI, Mar.7, 1875--Dubuque, IA, Oct. 23, 1946). The son of John Spensley and Mary Jane Waller, Harker Spensley was educated in Dubuque. He received his LLB from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1896. Spensley married Elsie G. Tileston, May 8, 1907, in Garvanza, California. Their children included: son Harker Brentnal Jr., daughter Anne Tileston (Mrs. W. L. Gallogly), Mary Alice (Mrs. John M. Weir Jr.), Elsie Georgette (Mrs. Frank T. Hardie). (1)

Advertisement from 1926. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

From 1896 to 1910 Spensley was associated with Spensley, Bailey and Spensley Mortgages, Insurance, and Investments in Dubuque. From 1910 to 1916 the company was renamed SPENSLEY AND SPENSLEY reflecting the partnership with his younger brother, Robert W. Spensley, who died in 1940. From 1910 to 1939, Mr. Spensley also had his own business, H.B. Spensley Real Estate and Insurance. In 1939, he took his son-in-law William L. Gallogly into the firm which was renamed SPENSLEY & GALLOGLY. (2)

On May 20, 1908 Charles H. EIGHMEY, James WOODWARD, and Harker Brentnal Spensley, Sr., the incorporators, announced the formation of the DUBUQUE OPERA HOUSE COMPANY. (3) In 1909 Harker Spensley and Robert Spensley, as agents of the company, purchased the COATES OPERA HOUSE from Messrs Coates, Eighmey, Spensley and Woodward. They then formed a holding syndicate with Jake Rosenthal and the Western Vaudeville Managers' Association. Renovation of what was to be the BIJOU THEATER began with an estimated $40,000 being spent on remodeling the building into a state-of-the-art vaudeville theater. (4) This resulted in the construction of New Bijou Theater which was destroyed by fire on April 7, 1910.

From 1910 through 1934, Spensley managed the ORPHEUM and added the title of president in 1929 when it was renamed the SPENSLEY THEATER. (5)

Honorary pallbearers were James Currie COLLIER, George Shaffhauser, Clarence W. Richards, Michael Horning, Fred W. WOODWARD, Henry Charles KENLINE, W. Burton Wallis, Albert FLUCKIGER, William LAWTHER, Jr. Thomas James MULGREW, W. S. Merryman, Fort Dodge; James Wallis WINALL, Judge John George CHALMERS, Dr. Henry Glover LANGWORTHY, William B. POINSETT, and Peter Kiesel KARBERG. (6)

Advertising thermometer. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

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Source:

1. "Death Claims H. B. Spensley, Prominent Retired Realty, Insurance Man Dies," Telegraph Herald, Oct 24, 1946, p. 1

2. "Articles of Incorporation of the Dubuque Opera House Company," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, May 20, 1908, p. 10

3. "Bijou Theatre Lies a Heap of Smoking Ashes," The Telegraph-Herald, April 8, 1910, p. 3

4. "Death Claims..."

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

Hughes, Christa-descendant