SPRINGER , FRANCIS

SPRINGER

Posted By: Bill Rathbun (email)
Date: 11/6/2003 at 18:18:22

History of Iowa by B. F. Gue 1903
The Century History Company
Lafayette Place
New York City

FRANCIS SPRINGER was born in the State of Maine, April 15, 1811. He worked on a farm in boyhood and attended district school during the winter months. When eighteen years of age he began to teach at ten dollars a month. In 1833 he studied law and five years later went to the far west, locating at the new town of Wapello, in Louisa County, Iowa. He was the first lawyer in the new county and in 1840 was elected on the Whig ticket to represent Louisa and Washington counties in the Council of the Legislative Assembly, where he served four years. Upon the admission of Iowa as a State, in 1846, Mr. Springer was elected to the Senate of the First General Assembly where he served four years. In 1849-50 he was a special agent of the Post-Office Department and in 1851 was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Fairfield. In 1854 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney and in 1855 was chosen District Judge. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention which nominated John C. Fremont for President. In 1857 Judge Springer was a member of the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State and was the permanent president of that body. He was again elected District Judge in 1858, serving until 1869, when he resigned to accept the position of Collector of Internal Revenue. In 1882, on the 19th of January, a reunion of the surviving member of the Constitutional Convention of 1857 was held at Des Moines, at which Judge Springer presided. It was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Convention which framed the Constitution and Judge Springer delivered an address of great historic interest. He died on the 2d of October, 1898.