The college closed for Spradley’s funeral in 1897 and distributed a photographic memorial card in his honor, but there has been little official notice taken of him in the years since. The ex-slave, Union army veteran, and long-serving janitor was among the most popular figures on campus during the nineteenth century and a leader in the local Carlisle community, but today even his headstone is missing from his former cemetery. Instead, his name appears on a list of other former veterans buried at Lincoln Cemetery, now known as Memorial Park, on the west side of Carlisle.
BRIEF PROFILE
FURTHER READING
- House Divided research engine: Spradley, Henry W.
- Dickinson & Slavery, Our Banner Image
- Colin Macfarlane, research journal entries, History 304 (spring 2011)
- James van Kuilenburg, research journal entries, History 2014 (fall 2019)
- Ivey DeJesus, “Decades after black cemetery’s gravestones removed and lost, families try to restore dignity to sacred space,” Harrisburg Patriot-News, June 26, 2019
IMAGE GALLERY
PRIMARY SOURCES
- 1885-11-23 || Sentinel, Spradley Hosts Class of 86 (Newspapers.com)
- 1888-07-03 || Herald, Spradley Protests Discrimination (Newspapers.com)
- 1892-12-21 || HBG Patriot, Spradley’s Son Arrested (NewspaperArchive)
- 1892-12-22 || HBG Patriot, Spradley’s Son Exonerated (NewspaperArchive)
- 1893-94 || Microcosm, Henry Spradley Parody Letter (Dickinson Archives)
- 1895-04-26 || Herald, Janitors Break Ground for Denny (Newspapers.com)
- 1897-04-10 || Herald, Spradley Obituary (Newspapers.com)
- 1897-04-17 || Dickinsonian Death of Spradley (Dickinson Archives)
- 1900 || Boyd. L. Spahr, Dickinson Doings: Ten Stories (1900)