Mr. Spence's Cornell Alumni News obituary listed him as born at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. In fact, he was not 'native' but rather born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland or in County Cork on September 2, 1846. The family immigrated to Chillicothe, Ohio, in the wake of "Án Gorta Mór" or the Great Famine of 1845–1848. The Spence family relocated to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1865. Spence returned to Ohio for studies at Ohio Wesleyan University and joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He transferred to Cornell in 1869 with several fraternity brothers, taking his Bachelor of Arts, classical course in 1870, after serving as 'the fourth founder' of the New York Alpha Chapter, Phi Kappa Psi at Cornell University. He was a member of the Irving Literary Society.