Emory Speer

Emory Speer (September 3, 1848 – December 13, 1918) was a United States representative from Georgia and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

Youth, lineage, and family life Speer was born on September 3, 1848, in Culloden, Monroe County, Georgia. His parents were Dr. Eustace Willouby Speer (1826 - 1899) and Annie Eliza King Speer (1827 - 1910). Through his mother, Speer was a distant relative of United States founding father Rufus King. His paternal uncle, Alexander M. Speer (1820 - 1897), was a lawyer and judge who served on the Georgia Supreme Court from 1880 until 1882.

His father, Dr. Eustace, was a minister of a Methodist church. He died on October 29, 1899, at the age of 72 after suffering from a "brief illness". His mother, Annie, died on January 1, 1910, at the age of 82 after suffering from a "long illness". Both his parents were buried at Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, Clarke County, Georgia. also a Methodist minister, a graduate of Emory University and one of the founders of Wesleyan College. He died in 1856 at the age of 66 after suffering from a stroke in 1854, and his life was reportedly "hanging on by a thread" after that.

Eustace's paternal grandfather, Alexander's father, and Emory Speer's great-grandfather, William Speer (1745/1747 - 1830), was an Irish-born soldier in the revolutionary war who served as an aide to Andrew Pickens. Afterwards, he owned 1400 acres of land in South Carolina, within the Abbeville district, where William built a house, which was the house that Emory Speer's paternal grandfather grew up in. A book was written about him by a Wade Speer titled "William Speer (1747 - 1830), his life, family and descendants". However, Speer would father a child with a different woman, Eleanor Digges Morgan, in 1874. The child, Marion Speer (1874 - 1970) would become a local socialite. Sallie Dearing would pass away in 1879, and Speer would remarry Eleanor Digges Morgan soon after. Eleanor would pass away in 1919 at the age of 61. He was elected as an Independent Democrat from Georgia's 9th congressional district to the United States House of Representatives of the 46th and 47th United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1883. In November, 1888, he wrote a letter to President-elect Benjamin Harrison and asked him for the enforcement of African-American rights during his term. During his federal judicial service, Speer also served as dean of Mercer University Law School in Macon from 1893 to 1918.

Publications Removal of Causes from State to United States Courts, 1888. Lectures on the Constitution of the United States before the law class of Mercer University, J.W. Burke Co., 1897. Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and other biographical addresses, 1909.