Maj. James Postlethwaite Speer and Anna Robinson

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Husband Maj. James Postlethwaite Speer ^{1 2}

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           Born: 1825 - Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA 1
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         Buried: 

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         Father: Dr. James Ramsey Speer (1796-1891) 3 4
         Mother: Hettie Morrow (Abt 1802-1887) 1 4

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Anna Robinson ^{1 2}

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           Born: 
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         Father: Gen. William Robinson (1785-1868) 5 6 7
         Mother: Mary Parker (1789-      ) 7 8

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   Other Spouse: J. C. Blair (      -      ) 1 2

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Maj. James Postlethwaite Speer

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Preferring a business life to a professional one, instead of attending college, as his father desired, he entered, when sixteen years old, the office of a rolling-mill, at Portsmouth, Ohio. After mastering the iron business he became interested in a furnace in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, which he left in 1849 to try his fortune in the California goldfields. After many failures and successes, including a trip to Australia, he returned in 1859 to Pennsylvania, and became one of the incorporators of the Kiskiminetas Iron company, in Armstrong County. At the outbreak of the civil war he raised a company which was attached under his command to the 11th P. R., and became a part of the Army of the Potomac. At the battle of Gaines' Mills Capt. Speer was shot through the left shoulder (the ball grazing the jugular vein) and right thigh (the femoral artery narrowly escaping), and was left on the field for dead. Being picked up by the enemy, he was sent to Libby prison, but at once paroled for exchange. In the course of three months he so far recovered from his wounds as to be able to rejoin his regiment, and was shortly promoted to major. At the battle of Fredericksburg he received a bullet-wound in the arm. On recovering from this he was made assistant inspector-general on Gen. Crawford's staff. After the battle of Gettysburg he participated in the principal engagements of the Army of the Potomac, and was mustered out of the service on account of disability. On his return to Pittsburgh he was associated with Hannah, Hart & Co. in the banking business. After spending two years in the Idaho gold region, he became, in 1870, one of the organizers of the Freehold bank, of which he eventually became vice-president, beginning as cashier. In 1880 he took up a permanent residence on his farm of eighty acres at Edgewater station, and gave his attention largely to the breeding of Jersey cattle, etc. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, the G. A. R., and was a Freemason. He was always a republican, and served several years in the Allegheny City councils.

1 —, The History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Part II (Chicago, IL: A. W. Warner & Co., 1889), Pg 373.

2 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 593.

3 —, The History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Part II (Chicago, IL: A. W. Warner & Co., 1889), Pg 315, 373.

4 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. III (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 470.

5 —, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, PA: Galaxy Publishing Company, 1874), Pg 649.

6 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 1096.

7 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 584.

8 —, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, PA: Galaxy Publishing Company, 1874), Pg 650.