SPIELMAN, Capt. John A. - 1912 Bio (1834-1914)

SPIELMAN, BERG, CRAF, REPASS, HEATON, HERSHBERGER, MCELHINNY, HARRISON, TURNEY

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 10/1/2007 at 19:50:55

History of Jefferson County, Iowa -- A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol II, Published 1912, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago
Pages 230-234

Captain John A. SPIELMAN. One of the best known men of Fairfield is Captain John A. SPIELMAN. He is perhaps the most widely known among those who wear the blue uniform with the brass buttons -- the soldiers of the Civil war who today form the Grand Army of the Republic -- for he has been most active in the work of the order and has personal acquaintance not only with its leading members in Iowa but also many of its most prominent representatives throughout the nation. He is also widely known in the English Lutheran church, where his labors have been an effective force for good in Fairfield, and has figured as a leading merchant for many years although he is now enjoying a well earned rest. A native of Ohio, Captain SPIELMAN was born in Columbus, July 10, 1834, a son of John and Saloma (BERG) SPIELMAN, the former a native of Schertzheim, Germany, born in 1808, and the latter of Lichtenau, Germany, born in 1809. They spent their youthful days in the fatherland and came to the United States with their respective parents, both families establishing homes in Baltimore, Maryland. The young couple, however, were married in Fredericktown and in the year 1830 became residents of Columbus, Ohio, where they resided until 1840, which year witnessed their arrival in Jefferson county, Iowa. They journeyed with three other families to Iowa City, then the capital of Iowa territory, but, not liking that district, John SPIELMAN brought his family to Jefferson county. This region was then largely wild and unimproved and he entered land from the government in Walnut township. Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made upon the place, but he was industrious and diligent and at once began to break the sod and cultivate the fields, which in due time brought forth abundant harvests. He continued to reside upon that farm for many years, converting it into a valuable property, and it is still in the possession of one of his daughters, Mrs. Caroline CRAF. After devoting many years to general agricultural pursuits the father put aside the work of the fields and retired to Fairfield, where he passed away in 1889. He was associated with business interests here for ten years as a partner in a hardware store conducted under the firm name of J. A. SPIELMAN & Company. A citizen of worth, he did much to promote upbuilding and progress in Jefferson county and assisted many emigrants and friends who came from Ohio to locate claims in Iowa. He was ever a man of kindly spirit, possessing many admirable traits of character. He had no enemies and in large measure enjoyed the friendship and love of all with whom he came in contact. His wife died at the advanced age of eighty-eight years and in their passing Jefferson county lost two of its most worthy and esteemed pioneer residents. In their family were six daughters and three sons but several of the children died in early life. Those still living are: Captain SPIELMAN; Mrs. CRAF; and Mrs. REPASS, who is now a resident of Winona, Minnesota. Another sister, Mrs. Emma HEATON, died in Burlington, Iowa, in February, 1911. One son, Fred SPIELMAN, enlisted for service in Company D, of the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry, and died at Corinth, Mississippi, on the 3d of September, 1862. Another brother, Lewis SPIELMAN, died on a farm in Walnut township fifteen years ago, leaving a family.

Captain SPIELMAN came to Iowa with his parents in 1840, but when six years of age, and was here reared amid the conditions and environments of pioneer life, sharing with the family in the hardships and trials incident to establishing a home upon the frontier. As his age and strength permitted he aided more and more largely in the arduous task of developing a new farm until 1851, when, at the age of seventeen years, he returned to Columbus, Ohio, to attend school at Capital University, thus supplementing the knowledge that he had gained as a student in the public schools of this district. In early manhood he also learned the tinner's trade, which he followed for a year in Burlington. He then went to Mount Pleasant, where he secured a clerkship in a dry-goods store, there remaining until he located in Germanville, Jefferson county, where he began business on his own account, establishing a store which he conducted until after the outbreak of the Civil war. Prior to his enlistment in the volunteer service he had joined the Home Guard and was captain of one of its companies. He went to the front in the Civil war with twenty of the boys who had served under him in the state militia, Captain SPIELMAN enlisting as a private of Company K, Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in March, 1862. In May of that year he was made orderly sergeant. When doing picket duty the captain of the company was arrested for gambling, was court-martialed and dismissed from the service and the officer of the day turned over the command of the company to Mr. SPIELMAN, who on the 29th of September, 1862, was elected to the position of captain and thus commanded the company until after the surrender of Vicksburg. He received a commission as second lieutenant but served as captain, for the man who had been discharged kept him out of a captain's commission although his service was virtually that of commander of the company. General McPherson told Mr. SPIELMAN to go home in September, 1863, and there wait for his commission as captain, but as the general was killed almost immediately afterward he did not have opportunity to exercise his influence and secure the commission for Mr. SPIELMAN. Following his return from the army Mr. SPIELMAN, in October, 1863, entered business circles in Fairfield as a dealer in hardware and stoves and continued in the business with success for thirty-two years, after which he sold out. He closely applied himself to his work and his intense and well directed energy and activity brought him a substantial measure of success. Following his retirement from the hardware trade he became connected with the First National Bank as vice president and for a period was active in the management of the bank but, though he still retains the vice presidency, ill health has prevented him from taking part in its management in recent years. Before the condition of his health was such as to practically force his retirement from business he was prominently associated with many interests, including the gas company, of which he was treasurer. His hardware store was the largest in the city and the business was built up from a small beginning owing to the honorable methods and the earnest effort of the owner to please his patrons. His property interests include the SPIELMAN Block, on the west side of the square, where in 1869 he erected a building which he rebuilt in 1885.

In the field of politics Captain SPIELMAN had also exerted a beneficial and widely felt influence. He has been an earnest republican since the formation of the party and in association with United States Senator James F. Wilson and Waltus Collins organized the republican party in this county for the Fremont campaign. He has served as a member of the city council for a number of years, has filled township offices and has also occupied the position of county clerk. No trust reposed in him, political or otherwise, has ever been betrayed in the slightest degree and his labors in office have at all times been of a practical as well as progressive character.

On the 24th of April, 1860, Captain SPIELMAN was united in marriage to Miss Christina HERSHBERGER, who was born in Lancaster, Ohio, June 2, 1840, and in 1850 was brought to Jefferson county by her parents, Godfrey and Caroline HERSHBERGER, who were natives of Germany and are now deceased, the father passing away in this county while the mother's death occurred in Kansas. Unto Captain and Mrs. SPIELMAN have been born six children. Henry A., who was born March 4, 1861, is now a merchant of Topeka, Kansas. John G., born January 2, 1863, is a draughtsman, having charge of the draughting department of the north plant of the Illinois Steel Company at Chicago. Carrie now resides with her father, having two years ago lost her husband, who was the Rev. C. S. McELHINNY, a Presbyterian minister. Fred A. is a traveling salesman, residing in Fairfield. May is the wife of F. W. HARRISON, a commercial traveler living in Los Angeles, California. Bella is the wife of Dillon TURNEY, mentioned elsewhere in this volume. Captain SPIELMAN provided his children with excellent educational advantages, Carrie and John having been graduated from the State University at Iowa City, while May is a graduate of Midland College at Atchison, Kansas; Fred and Bella of the high school at Fairfield and Henry of Carthage College, Carthage, Illinois.

Business activity by no means comprises the extent of Captain SPIELMAN's helpful service in Jefferson county. His influence has always been found on the side of right, progress, reform and improvement. He has long held membership in the English Lutheran church and for fifteen years was treasurer of the Lutheran synod of Iowa and on six or eight different occasions was a delegate to the general synod of the United States. He likewise served as a member of the board of church extension of the general synod of the Lutheran church and was a member of the board of directors of Carthage College, conducted under Lutheran auspices, serving as president of that board when ill health forced him to resign in 1888. For a number of years he filled the office of Sunday school superintendent of the Lutheran church in this city and during that period assisted in organizing the Jefferson County Sabbath School Association, becoming one of its charter members. He was also identified with the State Sunday School Association and his efforts have always been untiring in support of any project which he has believed would prove of practical value in extending and promoting the church work in any of its different branches.

Captain SPIELMAN is also widely known in the Iowa department of the Grand Army of the Republic and is very popular with his old army comrades. He assisted in organizing George Strong Post, No. 19, G. A. R., at Fairfield, becoming one of its charter members and serving in its various offices, including that of commander.

A number of times he was sent as its delegate to the national encampment and has always attended the state encampments. He was chief of staff of the Iowa department when the national encampment met at Washington, D. C., on which occasion Iowa won the banner for having the best department in the parade that numbered one hundred thousand men. That year the Iowa badge was established as the result of the exhibit of the Iowa soldiers carrying an ear of corn for a canteen and a stalk of corn for a cane, the ear of corn becoming the Iowa badge. On the second day of the encampment the "boys" marched up to the home of Captain SPIELMAN and he took the seat formerly occupied by Senator Wilson, his comrades unanimously choosing him speaker of the house. He was called upon and made an intersting (sic) speech and the camp fire extended for two and one-half hours. On that occasion ex-Speaker Henderson dubbed Captain SPIELMAN the first speaker of the house of representatives from Iowa. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel of the Grand Army by Commander in Chief Adams at Pittsburg and he has received many badges of honor in connection with his service in the Grand Army of the Republic, ex-President Harrison presenting him with a badge at Indianapolis when he was at the head of the Iowa delegation at the national encampment there. He spent six months in gathering data and compiling the soldiers' and sailors' record of Jefferson county and there are few if any as familiar with the history of the Iowa department of the Grand Army of the Republic as is Captain SPIELMAN. Throughout his entire life patriotism and progress might well be termed thekeynote of his character. He is today as true and loyal to his country as when he followed the stars and stripes upon the battlefields of the south and he recalls many interesting incidents of the days when the boys sat around the camp fire at night, never knowing what hour the bugle might sound that would call them to arms to face danger and perhaps death. His loyalty, too, has been manifest in every other relation and thus he has been found a devoted husband and father, an enterprising and reliable business man and a faithful follower of the church.

[Transcriber's note: The Grand Army of the Republic is the fore-runner of the American Legion.]

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

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