| Notes |
- Henry was one of four children. Full family information is available from Chuck Speed of Texas.
Henry was called "Lewis" or "Lute". He was four years old when his father, Charles S. Speed, died leaving his mother with five children to raise. Although this early history does not reveal much of the detail of how they managed to survive, letters from cousins described how several related families by marriage would share a closeness and live within a close proximity of each other. Just as the Stewarts, Speeds, Brantlys, and Browns intermarried and supported each other in their move from North Carolina to Montgomery County, Tennessee, so too did the Speeds, Cowells, Waggeners, Coles, and Baldridges in their move from Montgomery County to Weakley County.
Following Martha Cowell Speed?s death in 1872, it appears that the four brothers and one sister stayed near Martin, Tennessee in Weakley County until the late 1870's. On 24 August 1877, Henry Lewis Speed married Ada J. Waggener. Family records indicate that Ada died shortly after that during childbirth. Neither mother or child survived.
The three brothers and one sister all then moved to Denton County, Texas and are shown in the 1880 census for Denton County. A notation in the census indicates that George Speed, Mary Speed?s twin, had died a year earlier. Living in one household at that time was Henry Lewis Speed (my great grandfather), his sister, Mary Speed, and youngest brother, Charles Speed, along with deceased George Speed?s widow, Anne Lewis Speed, and their daughter, Florence Speed, and Anne?s mother, Martha Lewis. In this census, Henry?s occupation is shown as farmer. Anne?s occupation is shown as housekeeper and Mary Speed is shown as assistant. Robert Stuart Speed and his wife, Cally Burgess Speed, were living in Denton County as a separate household.
During the 1880's, life for this Speed family was changing rapidly. Henry Lewis Speed married Lucy Florence Abbott on 13January 1884 in Denton County. Henry or "Lute" as his brothers and sister called him had already suffered a severe loss from his first marriage back in Weakley County to his cousin, Ada J. Waggener, when she died sometime in 1878 of child birth with the child not surviving either. Henry and Lucy Florence Abbott were married by Sylvestor Mosaly, a preacher and new husband to Henry?s sister, Mary, having married just a year before on 11 March 1883. During 1884, Robert Stuart Speed moved his family to Fort Worth, Texas where they lived until around 1890. Robert and his family then moved to Washita County, Oklahoma where they homesteaded at the time of the Oklahoma land rush. Charles Speed never married and died in Denton or Dallas County on 16-July-1889. Little is known about how he died or where he is buried. Nothing is known of whatever became of George Speed?s widow, Anne Lewis Speed, and their daughter, Florence Speed.
During the 1880's, Henry Lewis Speed and Lucy Florence Abbott started their family with their first son, Charles Griffin Speed born in Elzabethtown, Denton County, Texas born on 16-February-1885. Over the next ten to twelve years, the family grew in number and moved from Denton County to Baylor County and to Archer County each time pursuing better farm land at cheaper prices. The other children born during this time were Clara Lavina Speed born 16 October 1887 and died as an infant on 9 August 1888, Edward Lewis Speed (my grandfather) born 26 July 1889, Mable Florence Speed born 8 February 1892, and Mary Bulah Speed born 4 December 1894. Each child was born in a different location as the family migrated west. Clara was born in Denton County, Edward was born in Argyle, Denton County, Mable was born in Baylor County, and Bulah was born in Archer City, Archer County. Baylor and Archer Counties are located south of Wichita Falls, Texas.
In 1897, Henry Lewis Speed is shown in land records to have homesteaded on land near Cordell, Oklahoma in Washita County. His last and youngest child, Esther Catherine Speed, was born 24 October 1899 in Cordell. Henry Lewis Speed lived there for approximately ten years when he sold his farm and homestead for $1,600 on 18 March 1908 and moved his family to Clarendon, Texas.
On 21 March 1917, Henry Lewis Speed died at his home. He had been suffering from a bad flu weeks earlier but had decided to get up out of bed to prepare his garden for spring seeding. Soon he was back in bed experiencing a relapse of the illness. When it became apparent that he was taking a turn for the worse, Henry called his family to his bedside. My grandfather, Ed Speed, always told us the story of how his father made him promise that he would marry and have sons. He was deeply concerned that his Speed line would end without male descendants to carry on the name. At the time, Ed?s brother, Charlie was married to Mary Eugenia Moore and had two daughters, Edith Clara Speed born 26 July 1910 and Catherine (Kitty) Leota Speed born 20 October 1912. Years later, my grandfather Ed would get tears in his eyes when he would tell this story and he would be emotional about how his only son, Homer Charles Speed, had three sons to carry on his Speed line.
|
1852 - 1917 (64 years)
