Lawrence P. Speck, farmer and merchant miller, was born in Rogersville, Tenn., October 28, 1841, the son of George C. and Mary D. (Russell) Speck. The father, a native of Augusta County, Va., was born in 1804, and died in 1847, and was of German-French origin. He was a tailor and also dealt in live stock, and about 1844 moved from Hawkins County to Morristown, where his death occurred. The mother was born in Greene County, Tenn., June 24, 1814, and died February 20, 1886. Her children are Thos. J., Mary C., Lawrence P. and George E. Our-subject was reared in Rogersville and Morristown, and received a limited education in common schools, and a few terms at McMinn Academy. He was a clerk in early life, and worked several years in a printing office. With the opening of the war, while residing at Camden, Ark., he enlisted in Company C, first Arkansas Volunteers, Confederate Army, and was paroled at the close at Jamestown, N. C. He returned to Rogersville and then moved to New Orleans, and was employed in the cotton trade, with a firm engaged in that business. In 1867 he married Elizabeth Robertson, of Kosciusko, Miss. Re then engaged in the newspaper business and merchandising at Morristown, Tenn. In 1880 he went to Rockford, Blount County, where he engaged in merchandising and manufacturing cotton goods, but in 1885 he began farm ing at his present home. His children are George C., born October 10, 1869; Hugh W., born January 10, 1872: Annie L., born January 6, 1874; Thomas A., born April 16, 1876; Eugenia A., born February 22, 1878; Mary P., born December 21, 1880; Bessie L., born January 29, 1883; and Laura B., born December 28, 1884. A. J. Stephens, sheriff, was born twelve miles south of Greeneville, in 1843, being the son of Samuel L. and Mary J. (Farnsworth) Stephens, the former born in this county April 2, 1805, the son of Andrew Stephens, of Pennsylvania, but a resident of Greene County since 1790. Samuel died April 26, 1974. The mother was born in Greene County October 13, 1820, being the daughter of Thomas Farnsworth. She is a Lutheran, and is .still a resident of this county. Our subject was educated in a mill, and attended Rich- land Creek Academy. In 1862 he joined the Fourth Tennessee Federal Infantry, and was captured while en route for Kentucky, and taken to Knoxville and put in the Confederate service, but ran away at the first opportunity, and helped raise Company E, Second Federal North Carolina Mounted Infantry, of which he was chosen Second Lieutenant, serving until August 16, 1865, when, by special order of the war department, he was mustered out at Knoxville. He then established a wool-carding machine at Little Lick Creek, running it for three years, and then engaged in iron mining for two years. He was then a farmer and mill-wright until August, 1886, when he became sheriff. He is a Republican. In 1867 he married Martha E., a daughter of John Susong. She was born in Greene County in 1843, and is a Presbyterian. They have had four children.
