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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
WILLIAM M. SPRINGER, of Garfield Township, is a native of Marshall County, Ill., where he was born Feb. 26, 1849, and is a son of Isaac and Charlotte (Ijams) Springer, the first a native of Maryland and the second of Ohio. Isaac was born in Maryland, May 7, 1798, and was a son of John and Rebecca Springer. When two years of age he removed with his parents to West Virginia, where he remained a few years, and then removed to Muskingum County, Ohio, where he was married in the spring of 1826. They were the parents of twelve children, and the subject of this sketch was the eleventh child. Isaac died March 17, 1853, and his wife in June, 1870. She was an acceptable member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William M. Springer was reared on a farm, but entered Hedding College at Abingdon, which he attended for three years, receiving a very liberal education. Upon leaving school he went to Chicago, and officiated as Deputy Recorder in that city for two years, and then returned to his home farm, and engaged in the breeding of Short-horn cattle, continuing that business for five years, when, having disposed of his interest in Illinois, he came to this county in the year 1882, and located at the western limit of Oskaloosa, where he still resides, and at once engaged extensively in the importation and breeding of French draft horses. His first importation was five head of horses in July, 1883, and the next year four. In 1885 he imported nineteen head, and in 1886 twenty-nine head. At the head of his stables is the celebrated horse Montevilliers, No. 2495, of the National Register of French draft horses, which horse is always kept at the home farm. His barns, one 40x60 feet and 24-feet posts, and one 40x100 feet, are models in their arrangement for the care of these fine animals. He keeps on hand at all times horses of all ages for sale, and is prepared to load and ship at any time, a single horse or carload of them. Associated with Mr. Springer in this enterprise is Mr. C. T. Willard of this city, under the firm name of Springer & Willard. and it is the intention of the firm to continue the importation of the best families of this breed of horses in the future in larger numbers than ever before. The good results of his importations are already apparent in the improvement of the stock of this county, and the firm seems to encounter no difficulty whatever in disposing of fine animals at good round figures. All of the importations have been made by Mr. Springer, who has visited France, spending several months of each year in that country, making his selections from the best families of horses, with little regard to price, where the qualities of the animal seem to justify it. That he has always made good selections is best proven by the national reputation he now enjoys and the ready sale of the animals selected by him. Men who inaugurate such enterprises as this, in which they take a proper pride, as does the subject of this sketch, certainly deserve more than ordinary commendation in any community. They are benefactors, in that they seek to do good unto others while financially benefiting themselves. Mr. Springer enjoys the confidence and esteem of all who know him, and is a most honorable and high-minded gentleman, whose words have always proven good as gold. Mr. Springer was married, March 1, 1877, to Mary Reece, a daughter of David Reece, of Abingdon, Ill. They are the parents of five children: Frederick Reece, born May 28, 1878; Florence M., Dec. 17, 1881; Paul Melville and Pauline Clara, April 28, 1884; Paul M. died Aug. 30 of the same year; and Gertrude Louisa was born Oct. 13, 1885.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy