John Ubalto, whose
actual name was John Sprecht, was born in Germany in 1831. As
a youth, he went to London, where lye worked as an assistant in
a photography gallery. There he met an Italian Count, living in
London as a political exile, and fell in love with his daughter.
All concerned favored marriage, but the Count wanted Sprecht to
become Catholic, which he refused to do. Relations remained cordial,
however, and the Count gave Sprecht his signet ring, promising
that if he ever reconsidered becoming a Catholic, and if the Count's
estate in Italy would ever be freed, Sprecht would have both the
daughter and the Count's Italian property. Sprecht later enlisted
in the English army and fought in the Crimean War. He was a survivor
of the Battle of Balaklava, better known in Tennyson's poem as
"The Charge of the Light Brigade." He was one of the
charging 600 in 1854 who mistakenly galloped between two Russian
armies, rather than into a single flank as had been intended.
About 40 percent of those brave cavalrymen died, but not so John
Sprecht. Following the war, he changed his name to Ubalto, for
what reason we do not know, and wandered in many lands. He eventually
married a German girl and came to Beaver, where, for many years,
he operated a photographic studio on Third Street. His grave site
is off the route of this morning's walk, so you will not see it,
but following his death in 1883 he was buried in Beaver Cemetery
and a memorial stone was placed reading: "One of the Noble
600 At Rest."