by Sarah A. Peterson-Camacho
Theirs was a love born from beyond the grave. Well, not exactly.
But from the moment William Chester Spence married Lulu Holden Klamroth Dodd in Oakland, California, on Wednesday, July 29, 1925, it was a match made for the hereafter. The widowed carpenter, 47, and the twice-divorced medium, 52, shared a passion for the paranormal, and by the time of their marriage, they had seen enough of life to know that the Other Side was never very far away. In fact, it was all around them.
The Oakland Tribune, dated Wednesday, July 29, 1925
Raised in the late 19th-century Spiritualist community of Summerland in Santa Barbara County, the oldest of three siblings, Lulu Holden was a practicing medium by the time she was 21, giving lectures and holding seances at Summerland’s Spiritualist Camp. Her work brought in extra income in the wake of her elderly father’s death in 1896 as her family struggled to maintain their 79-acre farm in nearby Goleta.
Lulu Spence’s advertisement for her mediumship services, from The Los Angeles Herald, dated Saturday, April 18, 1896
From a childhood steeped in the supernatural to her marriage to a fellow Spiritualist in 1901, the paranormal had propelled the clairvoyant Lulu through troubled marriages, multiple divorces, and single motherhood, her professional mediumship providing for her and her two children until they reached adulthood.
Her new husband was a bit mysterious. The Santa Rosa native was said to have a married daughter somewhere in Santa Monica, but to Lulu, William Spence was pretty much a lone wolf. One thing she knew for certain was that he’d always had a thing for older women.
In 1900, at the age of 22, Spence had taken a blushing, French-born bride of 50 named Mary. While other young men his age were out on the town sowing their wild oats, William could be found working in the fields by day and keeping his older wife’s home fires stoked by night.
As the years went by, Spence learned a new trade, carpentry, and cared for his wife into her old age. He kept to himself a startling secret: he was a natural-born medium, with brushes with the supernatural dating back to his youth. After Mary’s death, William sought the truth about his innate psychic abilities from Lulu, an empathetic professional who could answer all his questions…and who also happened to be an older woman.
By 1928, now settled in Fresno, the psychically-sensitive newlyweds were ready to bust some ghosts. Who better to spread the supernatural word than an intrepid young reporter from The Fresno Morning Republican?
No one will ever know precisely what William F. Peters thought when he first met the Spences at their modest home at 453 Effie, the thoughtful, white-bearded William, chopping his own firewood for the coming winter, and the forthright Lulu, who had literally come of age in a Spiritualist utopia, communing daily with the spirits.
“Troubled souls of men, which return to death scenes, have—from time immemorial—been the subject of legend and story, whisper and tale,” Peters opened with in The Fresno Morning Republican on Sunday, August 12, 1928. “In the heritage of every race, there are ghost stories of childhood: the spiritual believers among their elders, and the very real conviction, among some of them, that souls sometimes ‘come back.’ Few know—yet many are persuaded—that there is a factual basis for ghost stories.”
The Fresno Morning Republican, dated Sunday, August 12, 1928
Unlike those individuals whose sole goal was to prove the existence of life after death, Peters noted that the Spences’ intentions were of a more noble nature. “Theirs is not idle curiosity which would make them seek haunted houses for the thrill,” wrote the reporter. “They seek to quiet the troubled souls. Akin to purgatory is their conception of the soul’s state when the physical being has been slain or otherwise died in a peculiar way. Restless death is a curse they seek to allay.”
Mrs. Spence told Peters of an old house from the turbulent days of her first marriage, and of a male entity crawling up the wall of her children’s room. “The being was crawling on hands and feet, but not on the floor,” Peters wrote. “He was…heading up for the ceiling at an angle. ‘You no longer belong here,’ said Mrs. Spence quietly. ‘You must go and never return.’ The ‘man’ never came back. She investigated, and found that he had been murdered in that room.”
Mr. Spence, meanwhile, recalled his younger days on an Oregon ranch, and one pioneer house in particular, located in the middle of a lonesome prairie. The frontier-era structure had featured, he said, three front doors all in a straight line, with a primitive walkway made of two wood planks. One tranquil, sunny afternoon, Spence was seated at a table in the back room when he heard the distinct sound of footsteps making their way up the wooden walk. Craning his neck to see who it might be, the young William could see no one through any of the three open doors. But when the phantom footfalls reached the entrance, the trio of doors slammed shut simultaneously, even though it was a calm, windless day.
“Inquiring, he discovered that a cattle rustler and a boy, his aide, had been murdered there,” wrote Peters. “The boy had stood watch while the man ate breakfast in the back room, but a man had slipped by unseen and shot both. As he died, the rustler rose, and overturning the table, fell sprawling. Spence was not greatly surprised when, a few nights later, he heard a sound as of the same breakfast table being turned over, all dishes clattering to the floor. In the morning, every dish was in its proper place, the table upright, and nothing changed.”
Frightening, to be sure, but no matter how scary a manifestation might seem, Mrs. Spence posited, it was all smoke and mirrors on the ghost’s part. Spirits cannot actually harm you; if they could, would they not instead seek vengeance on those responsible for their demise? Instead, she argued, “They should be reasoned with, and persuaded to go.”
It was all a matter of opening up a dialogue with the Other Side, the longtime medium explained. “By talking to them, you can break the vibrations which have held them there, chained to the spot where violent death overtook them. We would like to find some haunted houses and ease the troubled spirits—release them from the purgatory in which they lie chained. People are just beginning to realize how much there is in thought transference. That is the medium through which we wish to work.”
One year after William F. Peters’ Fresno Morning Republican profile put the Spences’ paranormal agenda on the proverbial map, the Great Depression descended over the Central Valley like a dark cloud, putting the couple’s best intentions on hold indefinitely.
By 1930, the Spences had taken in a couple of boarders to make ends meet, as well as Lulu’s mother, daughter, and granddaughter. William entered the lucrative roofing business to bring in extra income, specializing in shingles.
The psychically-inclined couple found their household severely short on space but long on love and a sense of spiritual community. Following the death of Lulu’s mother Maryette in 1931, the Spences finally put their long-held plans into action. By 1934, Lulu Spence was ordained by the Fresno branch of the Spiritual Science Church and was hosting weekly services and seances alongside Pastor S.P. Smith at her home at 2410 Washington Avenue. When Rev. Smith and his family relocated to Bakersfield the following year, Lulu took the helm of the Spiritual Science Church No. 100.
In the years that followed, William Spence stood by his wife’s side as she operated a Spiritualist church out of their home, participating whenever his busy roofing schedule allowed. His unwavering support propelled Lulu through occasional storms of controversy, such as her hosting of a 1937-1938 series of esoteric lectures by blind Hollywood Spiritualist guru Warren V. Final, who often found himself embroiled in messy lawsuits and even messier sex scandals.
When not conducting spiritual business in her home, Rev. Lulu made the rounds of local secret societies, including the Fresno Knights of Pythias Hall and the Clovis Royal Neighbors of America Lodge. She presided over weddings and funerals, holding seances and hosting occult lectures, until ill health sidelined her twice in 1939. She closed the doors of her Spiritual Science Church No. 100 in August.
The Fresno Bee, dated Sunday, September 10, 1939
Her widower William would outlive her by 24 years, marrying Fresno widow Anna R. Close (another older woman) in 1942, and would die in an Auberry resthome on Friday, August 16, 1963, at the age of 85.
Theirs was a love born from beyond the grave. Well, not exactly. But it was a match made for the hereafter…
Works Cited
“Summerland Camp Meeting.” The Santa Barbara Morning Press, Saturday, Aug. 24, 1895, p. 4
“Miss Lulu Holden, Psychometrist.” The Los Angeles Herald, Saturday, April 18, 1896, p. 8.
“This morning…” The Santa Barbara Daily News, Friday, July 31, 1896, p. 8.
“Mr. Oscar Holden…” The Santa Barbara Daily News, Monday, Nov. 30, 1896, p. 3.
“Will of Oscar Holden.” The Santa Barbara Daily News, Thursday, Dec. 3, 1896, p. 3.
“Married. Klamroth-Holden.” The Santa Barbara Daily News, Wednesday, June 5, 1901, p. 2.
“Divorce.” The Santa Barbara Daily News, Friday, Jan. 7, 1910, p. 3.
“Married. Spence-Dodd.” The Oakland Tribune, Wednesday, July 29, 1925, p. 31.
Peters, William F. “Man, Wife Seek to Quiet Troubled Souls.” The Fresno Morning Republican, Sunday, Aug. 12, 1928, p. 11.
“Rites for Mrs. Holden.” The Fresno Morning Republican, Friday, April 10, 1931, p. 11.
“Spiritual Science No. 100, 435 Diana.” The Fresno Bee, Sunday, Dec. 16, 1934, p. 12.
“Returns from Vacation.” The Fresno Bee, Saturday, Aug. 22, 1936, p. 2.
“Hollywood Pastor Will Speak.” The Fresno Bee, Sunday, Aug. 15, 1937, p. 14.
“Services Planned.” The Fresno Bee, Sunday, Oct. 24, 1937, p. 6.
“Obsequies Observed.” The Fresno Bee, Tuesday, June 21, 1938, p. 11.
“Services Discontinued.” The Fresno Bee, Saturday, Jan. 28, 1939, p. 7.
“Pastor Closes Church.” The Fresno Bee, Saturday, Aug. 26, 1939, p. 7.
“Fresno Pastor Dies in Oakland, Last Rites are Arranged.” The Fresno Bee, Sunday, Sept. 10, 1939, p. 17.
“Home Ceremony Unites Mrs. Annie R. Close, William Chester Spence.” The Fresno Bee, Wednesday, June 3, 1942, p. 6.
“Camera Cornered—Loadin’ Up.” The Fresno Bee, Thursday, June 17, 1954, p. 15.
“Died. William Spence.” The Fresno Bee, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 1963, p. 38.
All photos provided by the author unless otherwise stated.
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