ABBEVILLE DISTRICT, SOUTH CAROLINA - OBITS - SPEER, John A. 1879

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Contributed for use in the SCGenWeb Archives by:
Candace (Teal) Gravelle <tealtree@comcast.net>  30 Nov 2006

"The Carroll County Times"
Carrollton, Carroll Co., Georgia

NEWSPAPER Issue of Friday, NOVEMBER 14, 1879

DEATH OF SENATOR JNO. A. SPEER

From the Atlanta Constitution of the 11th inst., we learn of the death of 
Senator Jno. A. Speer of this Senatorial district, which occurred on the 
10th inst. at Clifton Springs, New York [Ontario Co.], whither he had gone just 
before the session of the Legislature closed, with the hope of being benefited 
in health. Senator Speer had suffered for several years from bad health. The 
Constitution gives the following short sketch of his career:

Senator Speer represented the 37th senatorial district composed of the 
counties of Troup, Heard and Carroll. He was forty-five years of age and a 
man of force and character. He was born in Abbeville district of South 
Carolina, of a family of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and his ancestry 
contains names famous in the history of South Carolina and illustrious in 
the history of the Revolution.

He received his education at Oglethorpe University and was a man of 
information and thought. He became a student of the law under Judge 
Buchanan, now judge of the Coweta circuit, and as the senior one of the firm 
of Speer & Speer, has always had a large and lucrative practice. He was a 
captain in the Confederate Army and served to the end of the war. He has won 
reputation not only as an eloquent orator and able lawyer, but as a wife and 
successful financier. He has been all the while a director and large 
shareholder in the LaGrange banking and trust company, in which one of his 
brothers are officers. In 1878 he was one of the Georgia commissioners to the 
Paris Exposition, and spent some time in European travel.

Senator Speer was a man of stern integrity and rigid moral character. He was 
admired and respected by all who knew him and his loss will be deeply felt 
in LaGrange and surrounding country. As a senator he was thoroughly the 
conscientious legislator and gave to his public duties the most painstaking 
labor and devotion. He was a positive man in all he did and his acts will 
always read well whether upon the records of private or public life. The 
remains of the deceased will doubtless pass through here enroute to LaGrange 
tomorrow or Thursday.