This is a collection of short biographical sketches submitted by individuals with a link to the Researcher. You are invited to send appropriate sketches of early Atchison County residents for inclusion on this page

WILLIAM F. SPEER

William F. SPEER showed his good judgment in coming to Kansas. It was not his fault that he was not born in the great Sunflower State, but he immediately recognized that the next best thing to being a native born "Jayhawker" was to spend as many years as possible in the prosperous State and although he was only three months old at the time he has never had occasion to reverse his judgment. In fact, he likes it better every year and in all the fifty-five years he has lived in Kansas he has always held to his first preference for Kansas territory.

William F. Speer was born January 8, 1860, but when spring came his parents, Joseph and Mary (FOUNTAIN) Speer, whose history is written under the name of Anna D. Speer, a sister, came to Atchison County, Kansas from their former home in Madison County, Iowa. The parents settled on the farm which William Speer now owns and brought him up in the way he should go, including some schooling at the district school house. His meager time in school was only a breathing spell for the heavier duties which awaited him on his father's farm and William was early drafted for service and had to help along with his eight brothers and sisters. When the father's estate was divided he bought the home place of 160 acres, which he has improved a great deal since that time.

In 1889 Mr. Speer married Cora SPANGLER, who was born March 6, 1866 in Malden, Ill. She was the daughter of LeRoy and Lucendia (SMITH) Spangler, both natives of Ohio who came to Brown County, Kansas in 1870, where they remained until 1876 when they moved to Grasshopper township, Atchison County. They moved to Edmond, Okla., in 1900. The father died in 1913, at the age of seventy-four years, and the mother passed away in 1906 at the age of sixty-seven years. Mr. and Mrs. Spangler had six children as follows: Alfred, of Marion County, Kansas; George, of Edmond, Okla; Cora, the wife of William Speer; Joseph, deceased; Curtis and Irvin, of Kansas City, Mo. Mr. and Mrs. Speer have seven children, all of whom are living at home with the exception of Ralph, who is manager of the Muscotah farmer's elevator. The children living at home are: Lela, LeRoy, Lucy, Anna Belle, Frank and Marjorie.

Taken from:

History of Atchison County, Kansas

by Sheffield Ingalls - 1916

Submitted by:

Clemi Higley Blackburn, April 2002

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