Spencer family
With the death of her parents in the early 1880s, care of the Spencer family was left to a woman named Eliza "Mammy" Benson. Benson, an African American woman, a freed slave, had worked for Spencer family for many years before Emily's parents died, and would live with Emily Spencer Hayden after Emily married and had children. Mr. John McCoy, a friend of the Spencer family supported the children financially.