Genealogy

Author's Philosophy

It is better to write with errors than for it to forever remain obscure. However, an extensive effort has been made to verify names, dates, places, and facts.
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Spell Family Tree

Splintered wood, crudely joined together to form a cross. That’s our family tree – our heritage and our kinship. And It’s that tree which sets His family apart from all others. The Spell family is a family of families, who relax – enjoying arts, crafts, or an old fashioned hymn singing. This family works – building characters, morals, and values of worth. It’s a family that has a tradition of being strong, stable, and faithful. Family tree – that’s what brought us together – that’s what keeps us together, and that’s what family is all about.
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Granny Keziah's Pecan Tree

This pecan tree, 74 years old at the time this picture was taken, was grown from a seedling brought back from South Carolina by 10-year-old Keziah Speed after a visit with her father’s relatives.
The tree was right behind the sheep barn and stood 112 feet high, was 110 inches in diameter, and measured 13 feet, 9 inches around the trunk. The 1928 crop of pecans weighed 834 pounds. Granny Keziah helped pick up pecans that year at the age of 82.
Although the tree has been damaged through the years by wind and age, it is still sanding and bearing pecans.
This is a picture of Granny’s tree in 2001, before Hurricane Katrina damaged it even more in 2005. The tree now, in 2008, measures 15 feet, 3 inches around the trunk.
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Preface

This is the story of William Frederick Spell and his wife Keziah Catherine Spell, their ancestors and descendents. It is not the entire story. Gaps will be evident to some readers, and there will be some parts that people will disagree with because they have always heard it told differently. Dates, names, places and events came from tax records, census records, church records, land deeds, wills, cemetery markers, family Bibles, Civil War records, and from living family members.
This book, written by their great-grand-daughter, Nelda Spell Mitchell, is an attempt to compile a verified history of the family of “Bill” and “Kid” Spell. With names as long as William Frederick and Keziah Catherine, it is a writer’s blessing that their families gave them the nicknames of “Bill” and “Kid”. The persons writing up legal papers for them, shortened it even mor and referred to them in many instances as “W. F.” and “K. C.”
In the last part of this book, a genealogy lists William Frederick Spell and Keziah Catherine Speed Spell’s ancestors for as far back as has been found to date, and lists their eleven children and their descendants to date. Also, there is a diagram of the Speed-Spell farm, a floor plan of the main house, and a map of the land.

Spell-Speed Family History

PREFACE

to this work

PAGE 1

Author's Philosophy, Spell Family Tree, Armorial Bearings of Spell, Preface

Page 2

Spell: Earliest Known

Page 3

William Frederick Spell, Private, CSA

Page 4

William Frederick Spell, Wife and Family

Page 5

Speed: Earliest Known

Page 6

Speed: Covington County, Mississippi

Page 7

Lawrence

Page 8

William Wages Speed, Jr.

Page 9

Speed - Spell Slaves

Page 10

Duckworth

Page 11

Memories

Page 12

Will of Benjamin Lawrence Will of Rachel Lawrence

Page 13

Speed - Spell House, Floor Plan of Speed - Spell House, Diagram of Speed - Spell Farm, Map of Spell Settlement,

Page 14

Bunker Hill Lodge Charter Membership

Page 15

Genealogical Records

Page 16

Genealogy Links