Speakman Family

SPEAKMAN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/18/2010 at 20:21:54

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

James Speakman
By Louis Speakman

James Speakman and his brother, Ellis, came to Woodbury County in the spring of 1879 and lived on 160 acres three miles southeast of the present site of Lawton. At that time only three houses were between them and Sioux City. They plowed a small field and planted corn.

In the late summer of 1880, they returned to Kennett Squares, Pennsylvania. Both had plans to return to Iowa, but Ellis became ill and passed away. James brought his family back in 1881. The Family included his wife, Annie, daughter Carrie, age 12, and Fred, who was 9.

My grandmother, Annie, was from a family who had been raised in a home with servants, probably slaves before the Civil War, so the hardships ahead must have been great. Being well-educated helped as they took up a new life and ways of living. The Speakmans were of Quaker Faith. One story I remember, told over and over:
Annie asked, ‘Where will I do the washing?’ ‘Why, Thee can take it to the creek near by’.
They soon found good neighbors and herded cattle and worked together.
Fred grew to manhood and in 1899 he was married to Mary C Hanson. Their three children were: Ralph, born in 1901; Louis, born in 1905; and Dorothea, born in 1907. Ralph farmed at Galva, Iowa, and married Ella Kirkholm. Their two children, John and Alice, both live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. John has three girls. Alice has six children, two boys and four girls. (One boy and one girl are twins.)
Dorothea married Elmer Schindler and has two daughters: Susan lives on a farm in Illinois, and Sara lives in Columbus with a boy and a girl in her family. Susan had five, two boys and three girls. My sister, Dorothea, is a very accomplished violinist. She taught music for forty-seven years in Iowa schools and still is active, giving training for music pupils.
I, Louis, married Ruberta McKibben. Our daughter lives in Phoenix, Arizona. I still live in Lawton, Woodbury County, Iowa.