Volume 9, Number 11 - Spring 1988
The Legacy Left By John Speer
By Wanda Pickett Ehiers
Somewhere in the Edwards Cemetery just off Highway 76 East between Kirbyville and Forsyth in Taney County, Missouri, are buried the remains of my great-grandfather John Speer. The exact location of his grave is unknown since he only had a field stone for a monument.
I did not know my great-grandfather because he died March 10, 1922, about five and a half years before I was born. People have told me he was not a big man in stature and my records showS feet 8 inches tall. He was full of the spirit of God. He gave words of comfort and hope for people in trouble, visited the sick, performed wedding ceremonies, preached funerals and conducted worship services at early candlelight. No doubt he rode his mule if the distance was great but in later years he would be seen walking with the support of his cane.
The children at St. James and other rural Taney County schools looked forward to his coming and their lessons were laid aside to hear him preach. John Speer better known as "Uncle Johnny" used symbols he whittled from white pine boxes obtained from the general store to illustrate Bible truths. One such "nugger", as he called them, has three openings cut out to represent the Godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He created so many such symbols to illustrate his Bible teaching.
Mary Mahnkey, a former newspaper correspondent for the Taney County Republican, a teacher and poet, knew John Speer. The following is one of her poems published in "Ozarks Lyrics" in 1934. It is about the Sycamore Log Church which was built in 1933 with volunteer labor and a cost of $25. The church is located off Mo. 248 on Skyline Road and was pastored by the Rev. Erma Downs in February 1987. (From Taney County Repulican 2-19-87).
THE LOG CHURCH
They have builded a church of Sycamore Logs
Down in the Ozarks Hills; Near by the rippling water
Near music of whip-poor-wills A sacred shrine there
in the mountains
Where old fires of holiness glow,
And from ridges and rocky hollow
Come people I used to know
Gathering at early candle light
Just as we used to do
When we bashfully sat together
Young lovers, ardent and true
With sly jokes of the marrying parson
Our kind old Uncle John Speer
Who baptized, and buried, and married us
For nigh onto fourty year.
0, take me back to my Ozarks
To the little log church on the hill
To find my lost faith and courage
And old friends who love me still.
John Speer was born about June 20, 1836, in Franklin County, Indiana. He was married to Sarah Watts in Mercer County, Missouri, about 1866. His Civil War records show she died in Taney County and was buried south of Mildred Post Office: probably in the Casey Cemetery. Before his marriage to Sarah he served our country in state service under Jonas J. Clark for six months and then in the 27th Missouri Infantry and then Co. D. 44th Missouri Infantry. It was the cavalry of the Union Army. In 1864 his company was on march in Missouri and Tennessee in the months of November and December.
John Speer’s parents were born in Kentucky. His father, Joseph lived to be 104 years of age. His mother’s maiden name was "Collier." My records show Joseph and Dorothy had four boys and one girl. Their children were Benjamin Harrison, Isaac, Joe, Phoebe and my great-grandfather, John.
Benjamin Harrison was wounded during the Civil War and was guarding prisoners when he was selected as part of the honor guard that stood at the casket of President Lincoln after his assassination. Ben, Isaac and John fought for the Union. Joe was disowned because he fought for the Confederacy. His descendants may be found around Little Rock and Harrison, Arkansas.
John and Sarah (Watts) Speer had eight children. Lucy, Lizzie, Ella and Willie died young. Phoebe married George Washington Alsup and moved to
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Oklahoma. John Wesley married Elizabeth Melissa Johnson, Neoma married Green Brantley, and Sarah Elizabeth (Sadie) married John Thomas Campbell. Sadie was their last as their mother died a couple of weeks after my grandmother was born. Grandma Sadie told us the reason she was so small was because the woman who cared for her after her mother died gave the milk to her own children which was intended for her. Consequently she almost starved to death.
The following obituary was found in the White River Association of General Baptists’ 1922 Annual, Taneyville, Missouri.
"John Speer was born in Indiana June 20, 1836. When 2 years old his father moved to Princeton, Missouri and lived there a number of years. He moved from Princeton to Iowa remaining there only a short time. He moved back to Princeton and there stayed until after the Civil War. Then he moved to Taney County, Missouri Where he spent the remainder of his life. Death that stands us most in hand to be ready to meet called him away from this life March 10,1922. He was 86 years 8 months and 18 days old.
He had been preaching the gospel 45 or 50 years. By Lenore Pickett
Rebecca Gibson
Obituary Committee."
John Speer married Lizzie Russell in August 1886. Benjamin Harrison was born May 1891 and died in Michigan, September 20, 1970. Benjamin made violins, and like his father, worked with wood.
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