Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 663 - 664 

SAMUEL M. SPEER. Among the more prominent farmers of Attica Township is the subject of this biography, whose name stands high on the military records of the last war, as well as in the annals of Sedgwick County. By perseverance and industry in this locality he has gained a foothold in the world. He is a self-made man, having reached his present prosperous condition by his continual struggles from youth up to the present writing.

            Our subject, who is engaged in farming and stock-raising on section 25, is the son of Joseph and Anna (Masters) Speer, and was born in Franklin County, Ind., Feb. 4, 1843. A sketch of his father appears elsewhere in the pages of this ALBUM. Our subject was reared upon a farm, his father having always followed that vocation, and received in his youth the elements of an excellent education. While quietly assisting his father in carrying on the homestead in his native State, the Civil War broke out, and Samuel, filled with patriotic ardor, enlisted in Company F, 18th Indiana Infantry, with whom he served a little over four years, having veteranized in 1864. He participated with the gallant regiment to which he was attached in some twenty-three regular engagements, among the principal of which were the battles of Port Gibson; Jackson, Miss.; Black River Bridge, Champion Hills; the siege and capture of Vicksburg during which he was under fire sixty-eight days out of the eighty; and battles of Perryville, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. In the latter engagement he was taken prisoner by the Confederate forces, and spent some eight months in the horrible prisons of Libby and Saulsbury, N. C. On the 22d of February, 1865, he was paroled by the rebels, and allowed to return home, where he lay at death's door for several months with the typhus fever. He received an honorable discharge from the service, which bears the date of June 27, 1865.

            In the fall of 1865 the subject of this memoir removed to Woodford County, Ill., where he was employed for a time at farm labor by the month, after which he rented a farm and commenced agricultural pursuits on his own account. This he followed for some seven years, by which means he accumulated some capital and got a start in the world. In the fall of 1872 he came to Kansas and settled in Sedgwick County, and after having passed the winter here in preparing a home, returned to Indiana, where, on the 18th of February, 1873, he was united in marriage with Miss Maggie Stout, a native of Decatur County, Ind., born Feb. 28, 1847. His wife is a daughter of David and Sarah Jane (Thompson) Stout, the former of whom was born in Kentucky in 1798, and died in 1867; the latter, a native of Indiana, was born in 1833, and is still living in her native State.

            Immediately after his marriage our subject brought his young bride to his present home, where he has built a handsome and substantial house, surrounded by neat and comfortable out-buildings. He lost his crops during the ever-to-be remembered grasshopper period of 1874, and the succeeding years, but notwithstanding that, has, by dint of energy and industry, achieved a magnificent success in this county. He has a large and fertile farm of 160 acres of land, on which is an unfailing supply of water, a good orchard, and everything that tends to make life pleasant. He also has eighty acres in Barber County, and 510 in Reno County. He gives great attention to stock, and has a large number of horses and cattle and hogs upon the place.

            Mr. Speer is a strong adherent to the principles of the Republican party, and cast his first Presidential ballot for U. S. Grant in 1868. He has no desire for political preferment, having steadfastly refused to allow his name to be used as a candidate for any office. Both he and his wife are genial and hospitable people, and by their pleasant ways have greatly endeared themselves to the entire neighborhood. They have one child, a bright and intelligent boy, Russell P., who was born July 23, 1875.

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