Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/466

 SPEED

SPEER

assistant secretary of the treasury in July of the latter year, which position he still held by suc- cessive reappointments in 1903. He was married, Aug. 12, 18C.2, to Cecilia, daughter of Auditor- General John and Harriett (Coyell) Swegles, of St. Jolins. Mich. Mrs. Spaulding illustrated the gift books; "Easter Tlioughts" and " Grand- mother's Garden." and also "A Lost "Winter."' by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. General Spaulding was a member of the Loyal Legion and of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was a regent of the University of Michigan, 1859-C4, and presi- dent of the tii-st Congress of American Republics, held in New York in January, 1903.

SPEED, James, cabinet officer, was born in JelTer^oii county, Ky., March 11, 1812; son of John and Lucy Gilmer (Fry) Speed; grandson of Capt. James (of the Revolution) and Mary (Spencer) Speed and of Joshua and Peachy (Walker) Fry, and a descendant of John Speed, the English historian, who was born at Farring- ton. Chesliire county, England, 1852. He was graduated from St. Joseph's college, Bardstown, Ky.. in IS'28; was circuit and county courts' clerk: studied law at Transj-lvania university, Lexington, Ky.; and settled in practice at Louis- ville, Ky., in 1833. He was married, 1841. to Jennie, daughter of John Cochran, wholesale merchant of Louisville, Ky. He was subsequently professor of law at Louisville university, resum- ing the professorship in 1875; was elected to the state legislature in 1841 and 1847, and was the defeated Emancipation candidate for the state constitutional convention in 1849. It was largely through his influence that the state legislature pronounced emphatically in favor of the Union, September, 1861. He was an intimate friend of President Lincoln, and upon the latter's call for troops at the outbreak of the civil war, helped to organize and was mustering officer of the U.S. volunteers of Kentucky. He was a Union mem- ber of the state senate, 1861-63, and in 1864 was appointed by President Lincoln U.S. attorney- general to succeed Edward Bates (q.v.), resign- ing under President Johnson's administration in 1860. He was president of the Loyalist conven- tion at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1866; and a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1872 and 1870. He was the guest of the Loyal League of Cincinnati, May 4, 1887, presenting an address on Abraham Lincoln, He died in Jefferson county. Ky., June 2."), 1887.

SPEED, John Gilmer, journalist, was born in Jefferson county, Ky., Sept. 21, 1853; son of Philip and Emma (Keats) Speed; grandson of Jolm and Lucy (Gilmer) Speed and of George and Georgiana (Wiley) Keats, and a descendant of John Speed, the Elizabethan historian of Eng- land, also of Joshua Fry, who commanded the

Virginia regiment of which Washington was major in the French and Indian war, previous to the Revolution. His mother was a niece of John Keats, the English poet. He was graduated from the Louisville university, Ky., A.M., C.E., in 1869; practised civil engineering; was city en- gineer of Louisville, 1874, and was connected with the United States Transportation bureau at the Pliiladelphia Centennial exposition in 1876. He joined the staff of the New York World in 1877; and was its managing editor, 1879-83. He was married, Jan. 12, 1881, to Mary, daughter of Philip and Eloise (Gwathmey) Poindexter of Kentucky. He traveled abroad, 1883-85, and 1885-88; was commissioner-general and secretary of the American exhibition in London in 1887. He edited Die American Mazazine, 1888-89; Leslie's WeeJdi/, 1896-99. He also edited " Keats' Letters and Poems." He is the autlior of: A Life of Keats, and of A Fall River Licident (1893); The Gilmers in America (1898); A Dealin Deliver (1890); and hundreds of magazine articles.

SPEER, Emory, jurist, was born in Culloden, Ga., Sept. 3, 1848; sou of the Rev. Eustace W. and Anne E. Speer. He attended the district schools; served in the Confederate army as a volunteer in the 5th Kentucky regiment, Lewis brigade, 1864-65, and was graduated from the University of Georgia, A.B., 1869. He subse- quently studied law; was admitted to the bar in November, 1869, commencing practice in Athens, Ga.: was solicitor-general of Georgia, 1873-76; was the unsuccessful Independent Democratic candidate for the 45th congress, and elected from the ninth Geoi'gia district to the 46tli and 47th congresses, 1879-83, serving in the latter con- gress as a member of the ways and means com- mittee. He was United States attorney for the nortliern district of Georgia, 1883-83, and U.S. judge for the southern district of Georgia from February, 1885. He was trustee of the University of Georgia, 1877-85, and president of the law de- partment of Mercer university. He delivered an address at the opening of the Cotton States ex- position at Atlanta, Ga., 1895; before the Grant Birthday association at Galena, HI., April 27, 1898; and at the Peace Jubilee in Chicago, 111., in October, 1898. He is the author of: Removal of Causes from State to United States Courts (1888); and Lectures on the Constitution of the United States (1897).

SPEER, Robert Elliott, author, was born in Huntingdon, Pa., Sept. 10, 1867; son of Robert Milton and IMartha Ellen (McMurtrie) Speer; grandson of Robert and Agnes (Cowen) Speer and of William E. and Margaret (Whittaker) McMurtrie, and a descendant of the Elliotts and McMurtries, early .settlers in Central Pennsyl- vania, and of Lieut. John Speer, a Revolutionary