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Surnames: BROWN, HARRINGTON, HARRISON, HASTINGS, LARR, SPEER, STONE
Classification: Obituary
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ci.2ADE/5354
Message Board Post:
THE BLOOMFIELD NEWS, Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, Thursday, March 7, 1935,Volume
LIX, Number 19, Page 7, Column 1, “OBITUARY--SPEER” [Transcribed August 31, 2003 from
microfilm of the original newspaper on file in the Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public
Library.]
Mrs. Rhena Ann SPEER was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, January 17, 1847; died at her
home in Bloomfield, Indiana, Sunday morning, March 3, 1935, at 8:45 o’clock; aged
eighty-eight years, one month, sixteen days.
When she was but a little girl, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. David H. LARR, emigrated to
Indiana and settled at Brazil, where for a number of years her father was engaged in the
milling business. It was in the schools of Brazil that she obtained her formal education,
and her training did not extend to college, but by wide reading throughout her life she
came into the possession of a broad general knowledge, and she kept herself especially
well informed upon current world events which happened during that almost epoch-making
period through which she passed.
She was united in marriage in 1866 to William R. SPEER, who had recently returned home
after having served his country as a soldier in the Civil War. To add to their happiness
there were born into their home three sons—James C. and Edward L. (known always as “Ned”),
both of whom preceded their mother in death, and Harry L. SPEER, whose home is in
Chicago.
Her husband died in 1883, leaving her to hold the little family together and to provide
their living. With the combined courage of a pioneer mother and a soldier’s widow she
bravely faced the emergency and came out victorious.
In 1885, two years after she was left a widow, she and her sons came to Bloomfield to make
their home, and for an even half-century this was her home, and for the greater part of
this long period she was alone for her sons early left to make homes of their own. The
main reason for her removal to Bloomfield was the fact that there was living here at that
time, a sister, Mrs. Lucy STONE.
A few years ago her health began to show a decline and about three years ago she suffered
a stroke of paralysis from which she never fully recovered, although she got able to go
about. But after a second stroke, something more than a years ago, she was never able to
leave her bed. During these years of suffering she was patient, and she was highly
appreciative of the kindly interest and affectionate tenderness with which her neighbors
and friends administered to her welfare and her comfort. She had an affection, akin to a
mother’s, for John HASTINGS, who through all these years of decline, took care of her
business and looked after her daily comfort and happiness with all the tenderness and
devotion of a son.
Her only surviving relative in Bloomfield is a cousin, Mrs. William W. BROWN. And besides
the only son there are also surviving a grandson, Earl SPEER, and a granddaughter, Mrs.
Carrie (SPEER) HARRINGTON, who are children of Ned SPEER, both of whom reside in Chicago.
Mrs. HARRINGTON is wife of Cornelius HARRINGTON, a circuit court judge who is now the
presiding judge at the second Insull trial. And residing at Indianapolis is a niece, Mrs.
Lillian S. HARRISON, who she loved as if she had been a daughter, and who visited her aunt
frequently and looked after her comfort with all the solitude and tenderness of a
daughter. Mrs. HARRISON is private secretary to Dewitt S. MORGAN, principal of the
Arsenal Technical School in Indianapolis.
Immediately after transferring her residence to Bloomfield she became a member of the
Methodist church, and for fifty years she was a devoted member, her devotion being
manifest in her good works and in her faithful attendance at the services. She had a
kindly nature and a sunshiny disposition that made her a welcome visitor in any home, and
especially was she given a hearty welcome in a home where there was sickness. She had the
happy faculty of attaching children to her, and in the years of her strength she was
constantly doing something to make them happy. As a neighbor she was a model. This is
the testimony of everyone who ever had the good fortune to live in her neighborhood. She
was a good woman. By her faith in the Master and by her good works toward His children
she earned a place among the many mansions in that house not made with hands.