Ringing The Silver Dollar Bell

Colonel Asbury Speer

Ann and Jennie Speer

In 1845, the Rev. Brantley York was living in Jonesville, which was incorporated in 1811 as Martinsborough. The town was renamed Jonesville in 1815 and became the home of the Jonesville Academy.

The academy attracted students from throughout the South.

By 1845, Jonesville was one of the largest towns west of Raleigh and the center of Brantley York’s 200-mile lecture and preaching circuit.

York also taught and preached at the Jonesville Academy, where Jennie Speer from Boonville became one of his students.

On December 2, 1845, Jennie recorded in her diary that she was “engaged in the delightful task” of improving her mind under the instruction of the Rev. Brantley York. A 19th century authority on English, mathematics, Latin and elocution. He was the author of several textbooks on English grammar and one on mathematics.

In an essay on the harmony in nature, Jennie concluded that “nothing short of Omnipotent Power could have projected worlds of almost inconceivable magnitude into empty space and established laws by which their motions have been uniformly regulated for thousands of years.”

On March 29, 1847, Jennie wrote in her diary: “Last night was the happiest time I ever experienced. Brother York preached an excellent sermon…. The power of the Lord came down, and four professed religion; one was my little sister.”

Jennie’s little sister was Ann Speer.

On October 8, 1846, Jennie wrote that she had the pleasure today of accompanying Rev. York to Center Methodist where one of the classes on his 200-mile circuit was put to the test. “The scholars underwent an honorable examination, and thus clearly proving the value of the systems invented and practiced by him.”

Asbury Speer, an older brother of Jennie and Ann, also attended the academy and later became superintendent of the tannery located on the branch behind the academy campus. Asbury joined the militia of Yadkin County during the Civil War and obtained the rank of colonel in the Confederate Army.

Jennie, Ann and Asbury, dead now for more than a century, “lived again” at 7 p.m. on March 5, 2011, when their great great nephew, Allen Paul Speer III and his wife, Janet Barton Speer, brought them back to life in a Readers Theatre production at Jonesville First United Methodist Church.

The drama is entitled, Divided Loyalties.

The church stands on the site of the Jonesville Academy.

The Rev. Dr. Brantley York--who before moving to Jonesville founded in Randolph County a collegiate institute that many years later was moved to Durham and re-named Duke University--was also “present.’’

In the church fellowship hall there was an exhibit on the history of the academy, the town, and the Civil War, which began 150 years ago.

The Jonesville Academy’s Silver Dollar Bell rang again.

Dr. Allen Paul Speer III, who grew up in Boonville where the Speer family has lived for 10 generations, is author of three books on his ancestors. Allen’s great aunt, Miss Mary Speer, taught mathematics at Jonesville High School in the 1950s and 1960s. His books were made possible by the papers and diaries found preserved in the Speer attic. Allen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Lees-McRae College He refers to his three books together as “The Voices Trilogy.” The books are Voices From Cemetery Hill, Sisters of Providence and From Banner Elk To Boonville. Each book is winner of the Robert Bruce Cooke Family History Book Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians. Voices From Cemetery Hill was also winner of the society’s Willie Parker Peace History Book Award.


--CHARLES GRAY MATHIS
Sources
Voices From Cemetery Hill (Allen Paul Speer)
Sisters of Providence (Allen Paul Speer with Janet Barton Speer)
From Banner Elk To Boonville (Allen Paul Speer)
The Autobiography of Brantley York (Amanuensis Two Edition)
Jonesville, North Carolina: Historical Notes (W. H. Dyar)
Civil War Trail Marker, Jonesville, N.C.