First Issue Welcome to the premier issue of the W E SPEER FAMILY HISTORY NEWSLETTER. Here you will find genealogical information for the descendants of William Speer. Sr., who was born about 1747 in Strabane, County Antrim, Ireland. William immigrated to America in 1772, fought in the American Revolution, married Eleanor Little in 1784, settled in Up-State South Carolina, raised four children, and died in 1830. Today, we descendants of William and Eleanor are scattered around the US, and even around the world. At the last count, there have been 800 of us in 416 families! The just-published WILLIAM SPEER book contains a vast amount of previously unknown, lost, or forgotten information that is of great interest to all family members. But exciting new information has been learned in the two and a-half months since the book was published. Recent and on-going genealogical research by numerous people is finding new information on our Speer family faster than books can be published. So this new information will be reported here first. Additional volumes of the NEWSLETTER will be published as often as needed to keep family members abreast of new developments. If you have amusing, informative, interesting, or historical information about a family member, send it to me and it will be included in a future issue. Family stories, old portraits, old photos, signatures of departed members, and tombstone or house pictures would be of greatest value. All originals will be returned to the sender.

Speer Book Completed Our family history book WILLIAM SPEER (1747-1830) Abbeville County, South Carolina; His Life, Family, and Descendants is finished!! The book is the culmination of a research project started by me in February 1994. The final draft was submitted to the printer on July 15 of this year and copies of the book were received on September 17. The research on our family was completed in near-record time due to the vast amount of published information, the genealogy work by other family members, and the availability of information in local, regional, and state libraries and government offices. Most family-history research projects of this nature take five to ten times as long and produce even less information. The Speer family is fortunate to have such a well-documented history. Beginning chapters of the book cover William’s life as a 25-year-old imigrant to America in 1772, his militia service during the Revolutionary War, and pioneer settlement along the Savannah River in South Carolina. Subsequent chapters cover the lives of most of William’s descendant families in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. One chapter covers the descendants who fought in the Civil War, while appendices give informative cemetery lists, the historic 1869 and 1874 family history letters, an 1899 newspaper obituary that also details much of the family’s history, and Alexander Speer’s historic letters as South Carolina’s Comptroller General. A special feature of the book is the pen-and-ink drawings of 42 family members, houses, and monuments. The drawings, done by Edward Shanon Wood, a seventh-generation descendant, add dignity and grace to the book. In addition, 118 tombstone sketches and 42 signatures complement the numerous family stories in the book. Finally, complete documentation and indexing are provided for future researchers and those looking for specific names. The book should be of interest not only to descendant Speer families and members of the 600 or so other family surnames allied to our Speer family, but to historians as well.

200 Speer Books Distributed Getting the WILLIAM SPEER book into the hands of as many family members as possible was one of the original objectives of the project. In order to accomplish this, it was decided to provide the book free of charge to family members! This was made possible by the generous gift of the author and the many others who contributed to the project with no expectation of financial gain. In addition, Mr. George William Whitmire, Sr., a sixth-generation descendant and enthusiastic supporter of the project, graciously paid for half of the printing costs. As soon as the books were received from the printer, my mother and I left on a seven-day road trip through South Carolina, Florida, and North Carolina giving the books to family members. In some cases, a quantity of books was left with specific family members who agreed to distribute them to additional family members. Additionally, some books were mailed to more distant families. In this manner, over 200 books have been distributed to date. This should help meet another objective of the project and ensure that the information never becomes lost or needs to be compiled again. It was a particularly satisfying experience to personally hand the book to so many of my relatives. This was something I had looked forward to from the moment I started the project. Without exception, everyone’s reaction was a combination of disbelief and amazement. Disbelief that the book was free and amazement that their family had such an accomplished and colorful history. Most people feel the desire to show their appreciation, and many contributions of money, which go to Mr. Shanon Wood for drawing the portraits, have been received. A limited number of free books are still available to family members. Non-family members may purchase the book (see elsewhere in this newsletter).

Speer Books Donated Twenty-one copies of the WILLIAM SPEER book have been donated to local, regional, state, and national libraries. This has been done for several reasons, including: 1) to help ensure that the information never becomes lost; 2) to assist future researchers seeking information on our family; and 3) to show my gratitude to those institutions that helped me during my research. As I traveled around the southern states compiling information on our family, I was helped by many libraries. Those with special genealogy collections were most helpful and I am pleased to be able to show my graditude by donating a book that I feel will be a valuable addition to their shelves. Books have been donated to:

Praise for Speer Book The WILLIAM SEER book has been a great success. Family members are especially appreciative of the large amount of detailed information in the book, as well as the portrait drawings, and the tombstone and signature sketches. Genealogical researchers generally comment on the book’s documentation and index. The following favorable comments have been received:

Living Family Patriot Martha Lola Speer Marjenhoff, daughter of Foster Pierce and Henrietta Augusta Pooser Speer, is the oldest living descendant that I am aware of. She turned 98 this past October 22. She is currently living at the Forest View Mannor, 141 Callisun Hwy, McCormick, SC 29835 where she is under the watchful eyes of her nephews. Martha is in good health, but has suffered from hip fractures recently. I had the pleasure of meeting Martha and presenting her with a copy of my book in September. She was alert and told me that she was looking forward to reading the book. I’m sure she would appreciate a card from anyone interested. If you know of a similar living patriot relative, please let me know and I will gladly see to it that they get a copy of my book.

New Irish & Scottish Connections And now for some really exciting news! I have recently made the acquaintance of several genealogical researchers on the internet who have possibly traced our family back to William Speer, Sr.’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather! Although the information is sketchy and even contradictory in places, it appears reasonable and fits my expectations of our family’s earliest history. However, because of the uncertainly, I have not yet added the new information to my computerized genealogy list. The information is given here for your interest.

John Speer Family 450 descendants of John Speer in 250 families are shown on the attached JOHN SPEER FAMILY genealogy list. It is believed John was born in Ireland in 1755 and died in Georgia in 1825, but the dates are uncertain. Since this John Speer was the half-brother of our William Speer, Sr., all of these people are related to us! Note that this list of Speer families is entirely different than the list given in the WILLIAM SPEER book. The JOHN SPEER FAMILY list has just been found and therefore did not make it into the book. This now ties together over 1,250 related Speer descendants in 600 families in the US over that last 225 years!

William Speer Signature A second copy of William Speer, Sr.’s signature has been located (see below). This second signature comes from a 1794 land deed recorded in the Elbert County, Georgia courthouse. Remember that Elbert County is directly across the Savannah River from William’s Cherokee Ford homestead. William signed the deed as a witness. This find is extremely fortunate because the Abbeville County deed records, which presumably contained many of William’s signatures, were destroyed by fire. Elbert County recently completed an index of their deed records, thus allowing a quick search for the signature. Comparison of this signature with the 1781 signature shown in Figure 2-1 on page 48 in the book confirms that they are the same.

Portrait Found A remarkable discovery has been made. An early photograph portrait of Medora Lipscomb Scott (Mrs. Governor Wade Speer) has just been found! In the photo, Medora appears to be in her mid-twenties, which dates the portrait as about 1910. The words "Dora Scott (Mrs. GW Speer)" in Governor Wade Speer’s handwriting appear on the back of the photo. They were married October 15, 1907 in Gaffney, SC. What makes this old photo so remarkable is the fact that previously only one photo of Medora was known to exist and it is a poor-quality snapshot of her as an older lady (this was the photo used to make the sketch of Medora in the book--see Figure 13-28, p. 289). No other surviving photo was known until the c1910 photo was found by accident! For many years the family has known Medora only by her older-lady photo. Now we have another, much younger image of her. The photo was accidentally found by Medora’s grandson Robert Lee Speer, Jr. of Spartanburg, SC as he was removing baby pictures from an old picture frame. The long-forgotten picture frame was recently found while clearing his attic in preparation for a garage sale. The photo of Medora had been hidden in the back of the picture frame! Evidently the baby pictures replaced the original photo of Medora, which was then stored in the back of the old frame! Medora’s photo had been hiding like that for 50 years! Lee was removing the baby pictures (of me and my brother) in order to send them to me since I was involved in researching the family history. So if it had not been for the WILLIAM SPEER book and Lee’s upcoming garage sale, Medora’s photo would still be hiding in that old picture frame!

Calendar of Birthdays Ever wonder if any other ancestors or relatives were born on your birthday? The attached WILLIAM SPEER FAMILY BIRTHDAYS shows all of the known family birthdays chronologically through the year. Check it out!! Unfortunately, complete birthday information for many family members is missing, and thus those individuals are not on the list. If you have corrections or additions, send them in and I’ll see to it that they get on the next list.

Book Corrections List A few typos and mistakes in the WILLIAM SPEER book have come to light. Please make note of the following:

Book and Newsletter Orders See the last pages of this newsletter for information on ordering the WILLIAM SPEER FAMILY HISTORY BOOK. This newsletter can be ordered from the same source for $15.00 plus $1.00 shipping.