Len's Brother "Harry"

We've all heard of Len Spencer:

And some of us may have heard briefly about his younger brother Henry, or sometimes as he was called "Harry". I have really learned a whole lot about the configuration of the two Spencer brothers today. They had an interesting mix of things go on with them at home. I know I have said this about Len Spencer before in previous posts, only because he is really one to get suspicious about. His documented fantastic personality can show for it. Thanks Ada Jones!(she said this later in life in an inteview from the late-teen's, not long after he croaked).

How much do the collectors know about Harry Spencer? It's uncommon to hear his name come up, even when speking highly of Len. They do often have questions about him, only because he was clearly just as bright as his brother Len, but had unfortunate genetics unlike Len who had the superior ones, minus a few. 

Harry may have had more active negative genes, but Len abused his privileged traits, and took the beatings on himself(clearly by how rugged, but nicely dressed, he always looked...).

They had almost the same voice, looked almost the same, and even had a similar signature:

Not really surprising. But it's interesting though. 

So to what I found, Harry married a pretty Italian girl who emigrated from Italy in 1890(same time that Fred Hylands' wife Marie came from England...). Her name was Gazella and she was a year older than Harry. He had never lived near Len it seemed, as according to the censuses from 1910, 1920, and 1940, it seemed that he deteriorated in health slowly through each decade, but at least Len didn't live to see that, it would have broken his heart. It would have also drained his savings...

It seemed that Harry lived not necessarily as a boarder, but as a more classy "Lodger" in 1910 with four other people. He remained with the status of ''Lodger" through the teen's as he can be found living in different place by 1920. He was still married to Gazella, but by 1940, he was out of the house and at the Mental institution that Joe Belmont remembered him being at. He was listed as and investigator in the 20's, but not long after that, he was working as a mad train caller, as according to Belmont. It seemed that Len didn't bother to leave him too much money to last him that long. Even though he easily could have. It seemed that in 1940, Harry was alone without any of his family at the mental institution, with none of his family left, save for Len's daughters, who had moved all around the U. S. by that time. 

The last of the oldest recording pioneers spent the last six years of his life vaguely recalling the echoes of Len's voice, and all the others he heard long ago. Amid his frightening madness, the tears he wept were for Len. Who was long gone by then. 

Harry Spencer didn't leave too many records of his own to us collectors, but he left a multitude of sections of his voice from the hundreds of Columbia cylinders he announced from 1901 to 1905. He didn't leave much, but his brother sure did.
*Thank you Rae Ann for helping me with this amazing amount of information!*

I hope you enjoyed this! I'm at last back from Sutter Creek CA! It was absolutely amazing, and I cannot thank all of the good friends of mine for being so comical and being themselves!