Mount Union borough, Cassville borough, Shirleysburg borough

Mount Union's Boy Who Became Mayor of Denver

Robert Walter Speer, three times mayor of Denver, grew up in Mount Union. He was born on December 1, 1855. Welch's 1909 history of Mount Union and the 1919 biography Robert W. Speer, a City Builder both say he was born at Cassville and that the family moved to Mount Union while he was young. A Harrisburg newspaper called him a native of Mount Union in 1918.

His parents were George W. Speer and Jane Ann Brewster. Welch says his father worked with John Dougherty in the early days of Mount Union and helped lay out the town, a story told in A Question We Cannot Settle, and Maybe You Can. The 1919 biography puts the father in the 149th Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War, calling him its colonel, and says he was sent to Washington as assistant provost marshal with the rank of major. The county history of 1883 lists a George W. Speer of Huntingdon as the original captain of the regiment's Huntingdon County company and then as its major. The father died at his home in Mount Union on February 2, 1864, when Robert was eight.

The biography says that in the panic of July 1863, during the battle of Gettysburg, Robert and his brother George joined the people heading for Jack's Mountain, riding the family's old carriage horse. As a young man he was ticket agent at Shirleysburg and then Adams Express agent at Mount Union. The biography says that in the summer of 1877 he took his sister Margaret, who had tuberculosis, to Pueblo, Colorado, and that that fall he brought her home to Mount Union, where she soon died. It also says he went back to the express company and read law in the office of his uncle, the Huntingdon lawyer Robert Milton Speer, whose story is told in Cassville Boy, Admitted At 21.

The biography says that early in 1878 he had a violent hemorrhage and left for Colorado himself. The 1918 History of Colorado says he was too ill to walk when he got there and that outdoor life on a ranch restored his health. In 1882 he came back to Pennsylvania to marry Kate A. Thrush of Lewistown.

He was elected city clerk of Denver in 1884, was appointed postmaster by President Grover Cleveland in 1885, and served on the city's fire and police board and as president of its board of public works. His admiring biographer wrote that during his years on those boards he had built up "the greatest political machine in Denver's history." He was elected mayor in 1904 under the city's new charter and was re-elected in 1908.

He did not run in 1912, and the 1918 history says he went abroad. His biographer says the city engineer he backed lost to the reform candidate, Henry J. Arnold, and calls it "the most complete and apparently final defeat of his career." Commission government followed. A Harrisburg editorial says influential businessmen urged him to run again and that he agreed on condition of a charter amendment of his own making. The biography says the amendment, adopted May 17, 1916, named him mayor, and the 1918 history says he came back with the support of both parties.

He died in office on May 14, 1918, midway through that third term, after a brief illness. The Denver Public Library and his biographer call it double pneumonia.

The 1918 history credits him with creating and planning Denver's civic center, getting many of its streets paved and graveled, establishing its boulevard and parkway systems, and carrying forward a system of tree culture that won praise from artists and horticulturists. The same Harrisburg editorial said that, like many another public official, he was cartooned, abused and criticized without limit by political and personal enemies.

Speer Boulevard, which the biography says the city council named in 1910, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1986, as part of Denver's park and parkway system. The nomination says it commemorates the City Beautiful movement in Denver.

Checked against the record. We checked Charles Howard Welch's 1909 history of Mount Union, Edgar C. McMechen's 1919 biography, the 1918 History of Colorado, J. Simpson Africa's 1883 county history, the Huntingdon Globe of February 10, 1864, two 1918 Harrisburg Telegraph items, the Denver Public Library's 2020 account of his death, the Political Graveyard entry and the 1986 National Register nomination for Denver's park and parkway system. His birth date, his death date and his three terms agree wherever they appear. Cassville as his birthplace rests on Welch and the biography, and we have not seen a birth or baptism record. The Gettysburg story, the account of his sister and the 1878 illness come from the biography alone, written by an admirer soon after his death, so the story attributes them to it. Sources differ on some points. The biography calls his father colonel of the 149th, but the county history names Roy Stone as colonel and George W. Speer as major. Welch and the biography date his election as city clerk to 1884, while the 1918 history's wording points to about 1880. Welch, the biography and the 1918 history date the postmaster appointment to 1885, while the Political Graveyard says 1886. Welch dates the 1904 charter vote to June 1 and the biography says March 4, so the story gives no date for the charter.

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