Spiers of Nansemond Co, VA, and Edgecombe Co., NC.
Replies: 11
Re: Spiers of Nansemond Co, VA, and Edgecombe Co., NC... to Florida?
| Richard White (View posts) | Posted: 24 Nov 2004 2:19PM GMT |
Classification: Query
Surnames: Spier Speir Spear White Carter
That land that the Spiers family owned in Columbia (now Suwannee Countyy, FL... was not paid for till, I believe it was 1858...but the claim goes back to the year the land in that area was surveyed by the territorial surveyor, which I believe was 1826. It was classified as a cash sale and cash sales were supposed to have been completed within a set time, I think that was 10 years. It is not listed as a preemption claim (preemption meaning a claim going back to Spanish control of Florida) but preemption claims were stomped on very hard by the federal government and it looks to me like the Speirs may have actually been on that land before 1826... as the record is anomalous and nobody including the Florida DEP's state lands staff historian has been able to explain the anomally. I should get the complete file on the transaction... the "land entry" file... but somehow I've never gotten around to requesting that.
Anyhow... the online federal land record doesn't show it, but the online state land record does... There were actually 3 first names associated with the "sale": John R., Allison, and ALLEN... and the surname was spelled at least two ways... one being Spear and the other one being, I think, Speir... but if not, Spier... one or the other.
One has to be very careful about assuming anything about "an" Allen Spier/Speir (even in Ayrshire, Scotland, where they seem to have originated, the family uses both of those spellings)... as apparently Allen is some sort of traditional family first name for this family and various Allen Spiers/Speirs/Spears can be found worldwide.
My 2-great grandfather Allen Spear was resident in Thomas County Georgia from 1840 or before until just a couple of years before he died in the 1870s, at which time he remarried and moved "next door" to Decatur County; but he married his first wife, my 2-great grandmother Sarah Ridley, in Wilkinson County, Georgia, in 1836... and census records say that he was born in Florida. The year of his birth is uncertain but it is believed to have been in 1821 or earlier, and the U.S. was not in firm legal posession of Florida till 1821/22... though it had in effect been siezed from Spain before the Adams Onis Treaty of 1819 which became effective in 1821.
Although Spier/Speir/Spear isn't all that common a name, there were a bunch of them in Florida very early. Besides the one in Alachula/Columbia/Suwannee County one in Tallahassee bought most of the land around where Florida State University and Florida A&M Universities are now located, in the 1820-1830s, and another bought a small site on the Appalachicola River which was apparently used either to float timber or as a steamship landing, as it was "improved" with a small basin dug into it before 1824. These could have been, I suppose, unrelated, distantly related, closely related. or even one and the same person. I'm not sure... but Florida's first railroad was built to a point on or very near that land in Tallahassee in the mid-1830s... so the Tallahassee land purchases may have been as involved with "transportation" as the one on the Apalachicola.
I don't know if the Allen Spear who was associated with the land in Columbia County was my 2-great grandfather or not. I just know that from oral history, my great grandmother Sarah Spear Carter/Norton/White supposedly owned land in Florida, and I've been trying to find it. Paradoxically she, so far as I can tell, lived her whole life in Thomas County, Georgia, and I don't think that she or any of her husbands owned any land there... though her children by her first husband James M. Carter (who served as a private in Co. K of the 5th Florida Infantry Regiment and died at the Elmira, NY, Union POW camp in 1864), inherited land there from their paternal grandfather Herring Carter.
If I find the land... I find the family connection, or vice versa. <G>
Allison Spier was a 1st Lieutenant in Co. C, 5th Florida Infantry Regiment and at the time he was wounded he was the company commander. Allen Spear served as a private in the 12th Georgia Militia, and all of his sons except one, John A Spear, served as privates in the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment. They all perished. John A. Spear served as a private in the 50th Georgia Infantry Regiment and was one of its few surviving members to surrender at Appomattox, though for some reason his name appears both there and sometimes in Decatur County land records as James A. Spear.
Anyhow... my best, and only lead to a family connection is to the Columbia County, Florida, Spiers family.
Richard White
Tallahassee, Florida
Anyhow... the online federal land record doesn't show it, but the online state land record does... There were actually 3 first names associated with the "sale": John R., Allison, and ALLEN... and the surname was spelled at least two ways... one being Spear and the other one being, I think, Speir... but if not, Spier... one or the other.
One has to be very careful about assuming anything about "an" Allen Spier/Speir (even in Ayrshire, Scotland, where they seem to have originated, the family uses both of those spellings)... as apparently Allen is some sort of traditional family first name for this family and various Allen Spiers/Speirs/Spears can be found worldwide.
My 2-great grandfather Allen Spear was resident in Thomas County Georgia from 1840 or before until just a couple of years before he died in the 1870s, at which time he remarried and moved "next door" to Decatur County; but he married his first wife, my 2-great grandmother Sarah Ridley, in Wilkinson County, Georgia, in 1836... and census records say that he was born in Florida. The year of his birth is uncertain but it is believed to have been in 1821 or earlier, and the U.S. was not in firm legal posession of Florida till 1821/22... though it had in effect been siezed from Spain before the Adams Onis Treaty of 1819 which became effective in 1821.
Although Spier/Speir/Spear isn't all that common a name, there were a bunch of them in Florida very early. Besides the one in Alachula/Columbia/Suwannee County one in Tallahassee bought most of the land around where Florida State University and Florida A&M Universities are now located, in the 1820-1830s, and another bought a small site on the Appalachicola River which was apparently used either to float timber or as a steamship landing, as it was "improved" with a small basin dug into it before 1824. These could have been, I suppose, unrelated, distantly related, closely related. or even one and the same person. I'm not sure... but Florida's first railroad was built to a point on or very near that land in Tallahassee in the mid-1830s... so the Tallahassee land purchases may have been as involved with "transportation" as the one on the Apalachicola.
I don't know if the Allen Spear who was associated with the land in Columbia County was my 2-great grandfather or not. I just know that from oral history, my great grandmother Sarah Spear Carter/Norton/White supposedly owned land in Florida, and I've been trying to find it. Paradoxically she, so far as I can tell, lived her whole life in Thomas County, Georgia, and I don't think that she or any of her husbands owned any land there... though her children by her first husband James M. Carter (who served as a private in Co. K of the 5th Florida Infantry Regiment and died at the Elmira, NY, Union POW camp in 1864), inherited land there from their paternal grandfather Herring Carter.
If I find the land... I find the family connection, or vice versa. <G>
Allison Spier was a 1st Lieutenant in Co. C, 5th Florida Infantry Regiment and at the time he was wounded he was the company commander. Allen Spear served as a private in the 12th Georgia Militia, and all of his sons except one, John A Spear, served as privates in the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment. They all perished. John A. Spear served as a private in the 50th Georgia Infantry Regiment and was one of its few surviving members to surrender at Appomattox, though for some reason his name appears both there and sometimes in Decatur County land records as James A. Spear.
Anyhow... my best, and only lead to a family connection is to the Columbia County, Florida, Spiers family.
Richard White
Tallahassee, Florida