More About Me...
I'm Tina Spencer. I've lived in Idaho all my life. For the past thirty eight years, I've lived with my husband on the old Spencer Homestead near Troy, which is in the north central part of Idaho. The Spencers settled here in about 1883 and seven generations of Spencers have slept in the house I live in. It is not fancy, just an old two-story, balloon-framed house that looks like it could fall over any time, now. But we have it propped up pretty well, and it's a good home. There's a lot of family history here, and each time I uncover something in the back yard, or the old dirt cellar, things like horse shoes, hand pumps, broken pottery, perfume and even whiskey bottles, it's something that had to belong to my husband's family. They're the only ones that ever lived here.
There is a cemetery on the hill above our house where many Spencers have been laid to rest. When I visit there, I am intriqued by all the stories held in silence among the graves.
My father was born at White Bird on the Salmon River also known as the River of No Return, or more recently, the Frank Church River of No Return. Dad told stories of his youth along the river for as long as I can remember. The White Bird Battle Ground, which was the beginning of the 1877 Nez Perce Indian War with the U. S. Cavalry, was where he spent many hours of exploration and play as a boy. He always referred to himself as a Salmon River Savage and was proud of it. He loved the area and I learned to love it wth him. I love to write and many of my stories are set in the White Bird/Riggins area. I've traveled the roads and towns I write about and know the history well. Sometimes it's hard to find folks alive today who know what those towns were like in the mid to late Nineteenth Century; when I use them in my stories I often change the names of locations.
Dad also loved the Silver Valley in Northern Idaho. Later in his life, he lived at Rose Lake near Kingston, Kellogg and Wallace. He was always full of wanderlust and spent most of his life chasing rainbows like the miners of old. He loved to visit the ghost towns of Idaho's early history, Burke, Prichard, Murray, Wardner, and other areas where gold and silver lay hidden deep in the earth. I loved the history of those areas , too, and spent much of my life visiting, researching and reading the legends that went with them.
Many colorful characters live in the pages of Idaho's History; Jim Wardner, Noah Kellogg...and his jackass, Phil O'Rourke, Con Sullivan...Molly b' dam... The list goes on and on. Even Wyatt Earp was there in the early days, and it is rumored that Calamity Jane was there, too. I love to use these characters and their true history in most of my fictional stories.
On my mother's side of the family were Quakers; the"Plain People." My grandfather and other family members told their stories. I have a copy of the memoirs of Levi Coffin, the notorious "President" of the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, Ohio, before the Civil War. He was my great, great, great uncle. He, with other "conductors," led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the North. I also have my grandfahter's journal telling how he came to Idaho as a young boy. He rode the train to Kendrick, then went by wagon over rough terrain to a place called Woodland, Idaho, several miles up the mountain from Kamiah. His family helped settle the Quaker colony there. I have old Quaker records that tell stories of their own, and I like to incorporate their history into my tales when I can.
I hope you will go with me to places I've been, and see the historical events I've seen in my mind when I get there, and I hope you will enjoy reading the stories I tell as much as I enjoy writing them.
There is a cemetery on the hill above our house where many Spencers have been laid to rest. When I visit there, I am intriqued by all the stories held in silence among the graves.
My father was born at White Bird on the Salmon River also known as the River of No Return, or more recently, the Frank Church River of No Return. Dad told stories of his youth along the river for as long as I can remember. The White Bird Battle Ground, which was the beginning of the 1877 Nez Perce Indian War with the U. S. Cavalry, was where he spent many hours of exploration and play as a boy. He always referred to himself as a Salmon River Savage and was proud of it. He loved the area and I learned to love it wth him. I love to write and many of my stories are set in the White Bird/Riggins area. I've traveled the roads and towns I write about and know the history well. Sometimes it's hard to find folks alive today who know what those towns were like in the mid to late Nineteenth Century; when I use them in my stories I often change the names of locations.
Dad also loved the Silver Valley in Northern Idaho. Later in his life, he lived at Rose Lake near Kingston, Kellogg and Wallace. He was always full of wanderlust and spent most of his life chasing rainbows like the miners of old. He loved to visit the ghost towns of Idaho's early history, Burke, Prichard, Murray, Wardner, and other areas where gold and silver lay hidden deep in the earth. I loved the history of those areas , too, and spent much of my life visiting, researching and reading the legends that went with them.
Many colorful characters live in the pages of Idaho's History; Jim Wardner, Noah Kellogg...and his jackass, Phil O'Rourke, Con Sullivan...Molly b' dam... The list goes on and on. Even Wyatt Earp was there in the early days, and it is rumored that Calamity Jane was there, too. I love to use these characters and their true history in most of my fictional stories.
On my mother's side of the family were Quakers; the"Plain People." My grandfather and other family members told their stories. I have a copy of the memoirs of Levi Coffin, the notorious "President" of the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, Ohio, before the Civil War. He was my great, great, great uncle. He, with other "conductors," led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the North. I also have my grandfahter's journal telling how he came to Idaho as a young boy. He rode the train to Kendrick, then went by wagon over rough terrain to a place called Woodland, Idaho, several miles up the mountain from Kamiah. His family helped settle the Quaker colony there. I have old Quaker records that tell stories of their own, and I like to incorporate their history into my tales when I can.
I hope you will go with me to places I've been, and see the historical events I've seen in my mind when I get there, and I hope you will enjoy reading the stories I tell as much as I enjoy writing them.