Paterson Daily Press, 27 March 1889, p. 3, viewed online at Google Newspapers
Obituary
John T. Spear
The sad intelligence was received in this city last evening by his brother, of the death of Mr. John T. Spear, at Aiken, South Carolina, whither he had gone for the benefit of his failing health. The dispatch only conveyed the news of death, and gave no particulars of what Mr. Spear died of. It was not known that he had any specific trouble, but he was in declining health. Mr. Spear left Paterson about four weeks ago in company with his daughter, Mrs. Abram Collier, Jr., and Mr. Collier. While in different Southern cities he wrote his brother William Henry that his health was being benefitted by the balmy air of the South, so that when Mr. Spear received the telegram conveying the news of his brother’s death it caused a great shock to him.

Mr. Spear was born in Passaic County, on the Dundee Drive, and has always resided in this county. When a youth he learned the carpenter’s trade, which he followed throughout his life, and made a reputation for himself as an honest, straightforward builder. To have a house built by Mr. Spear meant a substantial structure, with the best workmanship. Mr. Spear, so far as politics are concerned, was retiring, preferring to follow the private walk of life that he had mapped out for himself, and the result was that he built up for himself a splendid business and secured, it is considered, an ample competence. Mr. Spear in his younger days was a member of the fire department, and belonged to Engine Company No. 1, and at the time of his death he held an exempt certificate, having served the allotted term in the department to entitle him to it. In 1864, when Engine Company No. 1 was formed into a stock company, Mr. Spear was one of the fifteen members that formed it. No. 1 was organized as a fire company in 1815. The stock company in 1864 bought the first steamer that the company owned. This was an incomplete affair, and was bought in New York, having been built by John Banks for a company of that city, but as the treasurer of the latter decamped with the funds it could not make the purchase, and Passaic No. 1 hearing of the machine sent a committee to New York to examine it with a view to purchase. The machine was bought in its incomplete state, brought to this city, and placed in the house on Broadway, where Paterson mechanics finished it, the engine doing good work for a long time. Of the members of the stock company that bought this machine the names of Peter Doremus, Andrew Moser, Alfred W. Piaget and George Young can be recalled. Mr. Spear was a man of lively disposition and was always ready for good, healthy fun. He was a member of the Gentlemen’s Bowling Club. The remains will be brought to this city for interment, the dispatch stating that Mr. and Mrs. Collier would start this morning at 8 o’clock. It is expected that further particulars will be learned of his death when Washington is reached. Jacob, Ralph, Albert and Will Henry Spear are brothers of the deceased. Mrs. Collier is the only child. Mrs. Spear died quite recently.

Paterson Daily Press, 29 March 1889, p. 3 (remains returned)
The remains of the late John T. Spear arrived in Paterson yesterday evening and were taken charge of by Mr. Charles B. Hindle. The funeral will take place from the late residence of the deceased to-morrow afternoon at two o’clock. Mr. Spear was found dead in the hotel he was stopping at in Aiken, South Carolina; he was sitting down and his death had apparently been sudden and painless. The Coroner of the place certified that death had been caused by cerebral hemorrhage, which in plain English means the bursting of a blood-vessel in the brain.