Alexander M. Speer

Alexander Middleton Speer (1820 – March 28, 1897) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1880 to 1882.

Early life, education, and career Born in South Carolina, Speer's father, Alexander Speer was "prominent in state affairs". In 1862, he was elected major of the 46th Georgia Regiment, and then promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He left the military in 1863 and returned to Georgia, where he served in the Georgia State Senate. In 1865, he was appointed judge of the Flint circuit, where he remained until 1868, when he was removed by Governor Rufus Bullock. He then returned to private practice and served in the Georgia House of Representatives for two years before being returned to judicial office. In 1879, he was elected to a seat on the state supreme court vacated by the resignation of Willis Alston Hawkins. Speer remained on the court until 1882.

Personal life and death Speers had several notable siblings; his older brother Algernon S. Speer became a Florida planter and politician, and his younger brother Eustace Willoughby Speer was a popular minister in the state. Federal judge Emory Speer was his nephew. Speer married Mary Battle in 1841, with whom he had at least four children. Mary died in 1878, and in 1880 Speer married Celesta Broughton Sanders, a widow. Speers died in Madison, Georgia, at the age of 77, following an illness of several months.