ABBEVILLE DISTRICT, SOUTH CAROLINA - OBITS - SPEER, John A. 1879 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/sc/scfiles.htm ************************************************ Contributed for use in the SCGenWeb Archives by: Candace (Teal) Gravelle 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.