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Family Sheet

HUSBAND
Name: William Speer Sr. Note Born: Abt 1747 at Strabane, , County Tyrone, Ireland Married: 15 Jan 1784 at Abbeville District, , , SC Died: Other Spouses: Martha Mcbride
Father: John (william?) Speer Mother: Margaret Houston
WIFE
Name: Eleanor Little Norris Note Born: 1749 at Abbeville District, , , SC Died: 26 Oct 1795 at Abbeville District, , , SC Other Spouses: ??? Norris
CHILDREN
Name: John Speer Born: 5 Nov 1784 Died: 20 Apr 1866 Wife: Elizabeth Caldwell
Name: William Speer Jr. Born: 9 May 1788 at Cherokee Heights, , Abbeville County, SC Died: 10 Jan 1877 at Abbeville County, , , SC Wife: Mary Slaughter Gill
Name: Alexander Speer Born: 23 Aug 1790 Died: 26 Apr 1856 at Lagrange, , , GA
Name: Margaret Houston Speer Born: 1 Dec 1792 Died: 26 Sep 1864 Husband: Joseph Rucker
NOTES
1). His mother died when he was born, and he was raised by his maternal grandfather, William Houston, in Ireland. He came to America and landed here at Christian Bridge, Delaware River, September 3, 1772. He was in Pennsylvania in 1773 and came to Charleston, SC, in 1774. He was in the military service in SC during the Revolutionary War, and lived with the family of General Andrew Pickens, in the Long Cane community of Abbeville County for about three years during the war period. Following the War, he received a grant of 1,400 acres of land in the Cherokee Ford area of Abbeville County where he settled and engaged in merchandising and farming. The following sketch of Speer family history is from a photostatic copy of a statement written in 1874 by William Speer, Jr., son of William Speer, Sr. who came from Ireland. Biography of the life of William Speer Sr. and his family by his son William Speer, Jr. On the third day of September 1772, one hundred and two years ago this day the third of September 1874, my father landed at Christian Bridge in the River Delaware. He was a native of Ireland. Born in the year 1747 in the County Antrim near the town ofStrebaul. His mother s maiden name was Margaret Houston. She died at his birth, his grandfather William Houston raised him. His father married again, had four sons, John, Joseph, James and Alexander. John came to America in 1786, raised a large family scattered through Georgia and Alabama. My father remained in Pennsylvania in 1773, in 1774 he came to Charleston, in 1775 the Revolutionary War began, he remained in Charleston till after Sir Peter Parker s attack on Charleston in June 1776. He then came to what was called the Long Cane Settlement in Abbeville. At that time, the Cherokee Indians occupied the lands now Greenville, Anderson, Pickens and Oconee Counties and made frequent inroads into the white settlements. In the winter of 1776 and 1777 an expedition was fitted out under the command of a ColonelRichardson. My father was in that campaign. It was called the Snowy Camps or Drayton s Camps. The army was snowed up, the snow as deep as the fore wheel of a wagon. He was in two expeditions against the Cherokee Indians IN Georgia, one under Gen. Williamson and one under Col. Pickens. They went as far as the high wassie and High Tower River. Burnt their towns, destroyed their corn and brought them to terms of peace. My father served in the army in the cavalry under the command of Capt. Hugh McCall. After the fall of Charels ton, the British overran the State. Many of the inhabitants took protection under the British government. My father and others went to North Carolina as Refugees and remained there until Genl. Greene took command of the army in South Carolina. He was in the battle of Kettle Creek where Col. Pickens with 300 men defeated Boyd Boyd with 700 men. Boyd was killed. He was at the battle of Keowee where Salvadore the owner of the Jews ? land was killed. He was at the siege of Ninety Six. He was at the seige of Augusta where Pickens and Lee took the place, which ended his military service. My father was a member of Gen. Pickens family three years when they were not in the service. He lived in a block house at what is now called Fort Pickens near the depot at Abbeville C.H. Court House . After the war he commenced merchandising about two miles below Abbeville. Early in the year 1784 he married Eleanor Norris, a widow lady whose maiden name was Little. She was the mother of four children before her second marriage, Robert, Eleanor, Mary, and Elizabeth. My oldest brother, John, was born the sixth of Novermber 1784. My father moved to a plantation near the Cherokee Ford, Savannah River, where he continued to merchandise till near the close of this life. On the ninth of May, 1788, the writer of this narrative was born. In 1790, the 23rd of August, my brother Alexander was born. On the first day of December 1792 my sister Margaret was born. In the year 1793 my father shipped to London forty five 45 hogsheads of tobacco. Others also shipped at the same time. With a view of buying goods they employed a man to go as super cargo who was thought to be capable and trustworthy. He betrayed histrust and gambled. My father lost all, about five thousand dollars. On the 26th of October, 1795, my mother died. In 1796, my father employed an overseer named Moses Cheynee ? . He remained a few months and robbed his store of fifteen hundred dollars. My father, in 1799, married a second time a widow lady named Martha McBride. She was the Grandmother of James and William McBride. Their mother was my half sister Elizabeth Norris. My brother John married the 6th November 1807 Elizabeth Caldwell and died the 20th April 1866 leaving surviving children, Eliza, Jane, Martha, James and John. I, the writer of this narrative, was married on the 2nd of December 1811 to Mary S. Giles and have eight surviving children, William, Alexander, Milton, Margaret, Mary, Elijah H., Andrew J., and George W. My sister was married 5th March Year omitted to Joseph Rucker and died 6th September 1864 leaving two surviving children named Elbert and Alexander. My brother Alexander was married in August 1812 and died 27th April 1856. His children, Sidney, Alexander, Eustice, Alford, Eleanor, Mary and Eugene Eugnia ? . My father died on the 17th of April 1830, aged 83 years. My stepmother died the 6th of May 1834, aged 82 years. W. Speer William Speer, Jr. was 86 years of age when the above account was written . Source Sellers McLaughen Papers of Patrick C. Smith, May 1971, revised 1984
2).  Second oldest grave in Old Rocky River Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Western Abbeville County. Eleanor  Little   Norris was a widow.  Source   Sellers McLaughen Papers of Patrick C. Smith, May 1971, revised 1984

						

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