BY MILTON H. TOWNSEND
The beneficence of Joshua Fry and Fanny Henning Speed provided endowment, constructed buildings, paid faculty salaries, and insured permanency of Union College.
It is interesting to note the ancestors of this illustrious Louisville family. Captain James and Mary Spencer Speed, grandparents of Joshua, came to Kentucky from Charlotte County, Virginia, in 1792 and settled near Danville after Captain Speed had served in the American Revolution. The son John was ten years old at the time.
In 1800, Judge John Speed inherited farm land from his father's estate. He married Lucy Gilmer Fry in 1809 and built historic Farmington in 1810. They were the founders of the Louisville arm of the family.
Joshua Fry Speed, son of Judge John and Lucy Speed, was born on November 14, 1814, at Farmington plantation on the Bardstown Road about five miles from the Jefferson County courthouse.
There is a family connection between Joshua Speed and Dr. Thomas Walker, wealthy pioneer land explorer who built the first house in Kentucky by a white man in 1750 near Barbourville, Ky. Judge Speed, Joshua's father, married Lucy Gilmer Fry, one of the daughters of Joshua Fry and Peachy Walker, the twelfth child of Dr. Walker.
It should be noted that Joshua's mother was an accomplished and cultured daughter of Joshua Fry of Danville, one of Kentucky's great teachers and benefactors. Fry was the grandson of Colonel Joshua Fry of Virginia, friend and fellow surveyor of Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas Jefferson, who became the author of the Declaration of Independence.
Joshua Speed was the fifth in a family of 11 children by his father's second marriage. All of the children except one survived Joshua. Joshua was well educated in the Jefferson County schools and under the tutelage of Joshua Fry. He spent two years at St. Joseph's College at Bardstown. Young Speed returned from college to Louisville, took a clerkship for several years in the wholesale store of William H. Pope, then joined the migration westward and went into a similar business in Springfield, Illinois, in 1835, where he spent seven years before returning to Kentucky. The village had fewer than 1,500 persons, but during this time was named the new capital. Young Speed chose to leave his father's homestead at Farmington, which had at this time 70 slaves and large landholdings, for a new way of life. He returned to Kentucky in 1842.
It was during his last four years in Springfield that he made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, who had come to Springfield as a young licensed attorney. Lincoln, five years older than Joshua who was then 22, came to the Speed store, looking for bedding and having no funds. Joshua invited Lincoln to room with him at the store and this Lincoln did for the next four years. In all probability young Speed knew of Lincoln, who had previously campaigned in Springfield for the State Legislature and who had been a resident of the fading town of New Salem. Lincoln spent the next four years—establishing himself as a competent lawyer, debating, and initiating a courtship that would lead to a future marriage.
Although his influence on Lincoln cannot adequately be measured, it was perhaps Joshua Speed who first introduced Lincoln to the circles of Mary Todd and it was Speed who burned Lincoln's letter breaking the engagement and compelled Lincoln to go and face his fiancee in person. Speed returned to Kentucky during the spring of 1841 to console his mother whose husband, John, had died. During that August and September, Lincoln was a guest of the Speeds at Farmington. Lincoln, now 31, had two wonderful months of hospitality with members of the Speed family.
It was during this visit that Speed became engaged to Fanny Henning, who lived at that time with her uncle, John Williamson, on a farm near by.
On February 15, 1842, Joshua Speed and Fanny Henning were married. The Speeds moved to a simple, domestic life at his country place in the Pond Settlement, thirteen miles from Louisville. Lincoln married Mary Todd on November 2 the same year.
UNION COLLEGE'S FIRST GREAT BENEFACTRESS
Mrs. Fanny Henning Speed was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1820. She was a sister of James W. Henning of Louisville, who later was a business partner of Joshua Speed. The firm Henning and Speed became one of the best known real-estate operations in Louisville.
Members of her family were of the Episcopal faith and were representatives of some of the first families of Virginia. As a young woman, she attended the Science Hill Academy in Shelbyville, Kentucky, a Methodist Episcopal school, conducted by the Reverend John and Mrs. Julia Tevis. At 22, she was given in marriage to Joshua Speed. In early life, she united with what was known as The Methodist Episcopal Church South.
Although Mr. Speed ceased attending The Methodist Episcopal Church during the Civil War, his wife faithfully discharged her duties as a member. But when the end came and the "Loyal Eighteen" bolted the Southern Church at the session of the Covington Conference in 1865, the Speeds became active in the organization of the Market Street Church and later in the transfer to Calvary Church on Third Street, purchased from the Protestant Episcopalians and renamed Trinity. Before his death on May 29, 1882, Mr. Speed joined the church of his devoted wife and from this edifice he was buried.
From the close of the war until his failing health preceding his death, he devoted himself to his business. He was president of the Louisville and Portland Canal Company; for two years president of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington railroad; director of the Louisville and Bardstown Turnpike Company, the Louisville Cement Company, Savings Bank of Louisville, and Talmage Ice Company; and president of the Louisville Hotel Company.
In 1867, he purchased a beautiful tract of land near the old Farmington homestead, lying on the waters of Beargrass Creek, about two-and-a-half miles from the city. Here both Mr. and Mrs. Speed enjoyed the latter years of life.
When Dr. Daniel Stevenson, Kentucky educator and leader of the "Loyal Eighteen," came to Louisville as pastor of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church for three years during the early 1870s, he won the friendship of both Joshua and Fanny Speed.
It was Dr. Stevenson who influenced the Kentucky Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church to permit him to bid on Union College at a bankruptcy sale in Barbourville on October 25, 1886. It was purchased for $4,425 with Green Elliott of Barbourville doing the bidding and Mrs. Mahala Dowis, member of The Methodist Episcopal Church in Barbourville, providing the financial backing. "It is hard to believe that Stevenson would have taken this bold step without some nod of approval from his good friend Fanny Speed of Louisville," according to historian E. S. Bradley.
Stevenson had two years to raise the money. On March 18, 1888, he had the funds to satisfy all creditors. A deed was made for the Board of Education of the Kentucky Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church. During this time the College was in operation, having reopened in December of 1886. Stevenson, who was serving as president of Augusta College, did not officially arrive on campus until the commencement exercises in June, 1887. He was named president of the College on September 17, 1888. Thus Union College was rescued from oblivion with a new dimension of Christian higher education being infused into its life.
During Dr. Stevenson's presidency (1888-1897), Mrs. Speed provided gifts for ministerial students, underwrote the preachers' institutes, and paid the president's salary. It is estimated that her total gifts during Dr. Stevenson's tenure amounted to $60,000—including $5,200 of the $7,400 endowment.
Dr. James Perry Faulkner, a member of the first graduating class at Union College, was elected president for the balance of the school year 1897-1898. His succession to the presidency would have been in fulfillment of Daniel Stevenson's wishes since Dr. Faulkner was currently serving as vice president of the College. In 1900, a Normal Department was added for teacher-training. A Speed-Stevenson Library in honor of Mrs. Joshua Speed and Mrs. Daniel Stevenson was opened in the Administration Building. Later, a room named Fanny Speed Memorial Hall on the third floor of the same building was used for the literary societies.
The need for a women's dormitory became apparent. In the autumn of 1901, the Board of Education gave an enthusiastic report with over $8,000 in pledges for a women's dormitory. Mrs. Speed had contributed $2,500 and orally promised to give $2,500 more. Construction was estimated to cost $10,000.
The passing of Fanny Speed in August, 1902, precipitated a crisis. The Board of Education was to receive half of her estimated estate of $500,000. Following the litigation of Mrs. Speed's Will, which was contested by the Henning heirs, the Board of Education announced on September 28, 1904, that the College would receive approximately $262,372. The Board also announced that Speed Hall would be opened by January 1, 1905. It should be noted that President Faulkner had conducted an additional campaign and raised $2,000 toward the construction of the dormitory. The Board of Education named the dormitory Fanny Speed Hall. Another new building completed at this time was a central power and heating plant.
The Speed legacy continued at Union College with a solution to a third crisis that took place on August 24, 1906, when a fire, caused by lightning, consumed the Administration Building. The Board of Education had already approved the erection of a men's dormitory and plans were under way to add a wing to the Administration Building. The Board now asked the Barbourville citizens to raise $10,000 for the erection of the new Administration Building and this they did. The cornerstone of the new Administration Building was laid on June 29, 1907; and the building was occupied in January, 1908. The men's dormitory was opened in September, 1907.
Financing for these improvements amounted to about $68,000 with a breakdown as follows: Speed Hall, $20,000; the new Administration Building, $30,000; and Stevenson Hall, $20,000. The Speed endowment provided the loan necessary to finance these buildings, and the income produced from the endowment assisted in reducing this debt.
The Speed legacy assured the permanency of Union College. Although many local efforts were made in behalf of the College, it was this handsome endowment that served to inspire Barbourville leaders to expand the work of the College.
To Joshua and Fanny Speed of Louisville, along with the faithful stewards who served during this critical period, the present administration, faculty, and students are grateful.
Editor's Note: This article written by Milton H. Townsend, vice president for college relations and development at Union College, describes the founding of Union College. It was presented to the Knox Museum in Fall 2014 by Union College staff. The author makes it clear that without the support of husband and wife Joshua F. and Fanny Henning Speed and Barbourville City residents, Union College may have never existed. In the early days of Union, the family's and city residents' philanthropy made the college successful.