Noah Q. Speer ¹

   FamilySearch ID: 9JVK-FCJ.

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Book: The History of West Virginia, Old and New, 1923. ¹
NOAH Q. SPEER. is to be credited with the development of one of the important industrial enterprises of Morgan County, that of producing the remarkably superior white sand for which the county has become noted, his research and investigation having led to the discovery of what is conceded to be the best quality of all the varied sands of this section. He is one of the progressive business men and representative citizens of Berkeley Springs, the county seat, and is specially entitled to recognition in this history.

Mr. Speer was born in Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, near Belle Vernon, on the 7th of August, 1837, and in the same county his father, Louis Marchand Speer, was born in the year 1810, a son of Noah Speer.

Noah Speer purchased a tract of land in Fayette and Westmoreland counties, Pennsylvania, and thereon laid out the present town of Belle Vernon, developed a fine farm estate, and became a successful agriculturist and stock-grower. He eventually sold a part of his land to John Gibson, who there established a distillery and also plotted and developed the town of Gibsonton. Noah Speer met his death in an accident when he was sixty-three years of age.

He married Nancy Frye, a representative of an old Virginia family, and their son Louis M. was reared on the home farm, his educational advantages having been those of the common schools of the locality and period. Louis M, Speer acquired a tract of land just to the east of Belle Vernon, and on this land he developed a productive sand bank.

He became a successful boat-builder on the Monongahela River, and continued his residence in his native county until his death, at the age of seventy-three years. His wife, whose maiden name was Jane Finley, likewise was born and reared in Westmoreland County, a daughter of William and Margaret (Wilson) Finley, and a granddaughter of Rev. James Finley, who was the first Presbyterian clergyman to cross the Allegheny Mountains and whose brother, Samuel, was the first president of the College of the State of New Jersey, now known as Princeton University.

William Finley passed his entire life in Westmoreland County and was a farmer by vocation. Mrs. Jane (Finley) Speer died at the age of forty-four years, her children having been seven in number: William Finley, Noah Q., Margaretta, Mary, Celia, James Rowland and Louis Edgar. Noah Q. Speer attended the common schools of his native county, and after a preparatory course in Dunlap Creek Academy he entered Washington College, in which he completed a course of higher study.

He then became manager of his father's sand business, and in this connection he invented a machine to supplant the old-time method of washing and otherwise cleaning of sand by hand. The machine which he thus invented is still widely employed in connection with sand production. With the increasing demand for a better quality of commercial sand Mr. Speer made explorations and soon found sand rock of the desired type at Layton Station, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, in Pennsylvania.

He there worked the sand quarry until the deposit was exhausted, and then came to Morgan County, West Virginia, and opened, near Hancock, the first sand quarry and plant in the county. Since that time other quarries have here been developed, and the mountain which had seemed valueless at the time when he initiated operations has since yielded immense quantities of the best quality of sand, for which there has been a ready market at all times.

In 1876, while making explorations at Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Mr. Speer discovered limestone which he knew would be of great value in connection with the manufacturing of steel. He associated himself with John J. Hoblitzell in the building of a kiln and the burning of lime, the product being sold to steel manufacturers. This was the initiation of the new important lime-rock industry in Berkeley County.

After operating his sand quarry near Hancock a few years Mr. Speer opened a quarry in the Juniata District of Pennsylvania. The financial panic of 1893 brought to him utmost disaster in connection with his business operations, and he was compelled to start anew. He then engaged in the selling of supplies to glass manufacturers, with an office in the City of Pittsburgh.

After about five years he became manager of the American Window Glass Company's sand plant at Wolcott, Indiana, and also the sand plants of the same corporation at Derry and Mapleton, Pennsylvania. He continued his connection with this corporation five years, and in 1905 he returned to Morgan County, West Virginia, and established the Speer White Sand Works near Berkeley Springs. This plant is still in successful operation.

After operating the plant about three years Mr. Speer sold the property and business and developed the sand plant at Great Cacapon in Morgan County, West Virginia, a property now owned and operated by the Hazel Atlas Glass Company, and while he has since lived nominally retired, his vital energy and progressiveness have not permitted him to be idle.

Realizing that sand was being transported hundreds of miles to the factories, Mr. Speer instituted explorations in Virginia and West Virginia with the purpose of discovering productive fields nearer the manufacturing centers. The result of his investigations is that he has secured three miles of Bratton's Mountain land, near Goshen, Bockbridge County, on which he has developed an immense deposit of glass sand convenient for shipment by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.

Mr. Speer has been one of the world's productive workers, a captain of industry, a man of thought crystallized into action. He has achieved much and has at all times guided his course along the line of invincible integrity and fairness, with the result that he commands the high regard of all who know him. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

In 1860 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Speer and Miss Alline Bugher, who was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Aaron and Rachel (Farquhar) Bugher. To Mr. and Mrs. Speer were born eight children, namely: James Howard, Martha Jane (Mrs. William P. Leggett), Louis Marchand, Prances (Mrs. Prances Speer Reed), Hamilton Bugher, Annie (Mrs. William B. Lambing), Cecil Alline (Mrs. John A. Proctor) and Noah Q., Jr.

Noah married Alline Bugher, daughter of Aaron Bugher and Rachel Farquhar, on 21 Aug 1860.^{1 2} (Alline Bugher was born on 2 Feb 1839 in Cincinnati, Hamilton, OH ^{2 3}.)