Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in Jefferson County, 1931 Fred A. Spielman

"The Fairfield Daily Ledger"
Wednesday, July 29, 1931
Front Page

Who's Who In Jefferson County
By Herbert F. McDougal

FRED A. SPIELMAN

Fred Spielman has done a great many things in his active life, but perhaps nothing else has marked the genius of the man and revealed his character so much as the Walton club, conceived and inspired by him and enthusiastically embraced by hundreds of people of this county.

Today, through his efforts and the efforts of those who shared with him the altruistic idea of providing all-the-year-'round recreation for the community, the Walton club stands out as a distinct community asset. Its fame has spread far and near, its charm lures an increasing number, Its membership of more than 1,400, its twenty-two private cottages, its club house, its golf course, the very spirit of the project itself all have sprung into existence in a little more than a year. An institution stands where but a few months ago there was only placid water and unimproved land. Its adult membership of 1,400 represents a total of about 3,000 who enjoy its advantages.

And it all came about because Mr. Spielman, devotee of our-door (sic) sports, sat many times on the shores of the idle 40-acre lake, and dreaming of the possibilities of the situation. It reminded him of Okoboji, and he pictured it as a developed recreation center. He'd come back to talk it to kindred spirits, and thus the idea developed.

Life has always held adventure for Mr. Spielman. When he was five years he went to a picnic and fell into the creek. Bruce Ratliff pulled him out "with his pockets full of fish". From that day he was a fisherman, and a hunter. When he was a young man, he toured Europe on a bicycle, starting out with a high-wheel machine. There were twenty in the party and they spent three months in France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, England and Ireland.

He is a philatelist--postage stamp collector--and attends the national convention of stamp fans; is an honorary member of many local stamp clubs. He used to play cornet in the old C. B. & Q. band.

He is a fisherman who devotes himself as much to stocking the waters as to taking the fish out. For more than twenty years he has been interested in getting game fish into the city water-works ponds. In that time he has succeeded in having 22 carloads of fish from the state and government hatcheries put into the ponds, besides many local shipments.

Mr. Spielman was born December 25, 1865 in Fairfield. The home was located at Main and Jefferson streets. Then the family moved to a home on the site of the present Roosevelt school, and then back to a new home on the original home site.

For thirty-four years he was a salesman in North Missouri territory, half the time for the Buck Stove & Range company, and half for the Beckwith company. He was the first salesman in that territory to use an auto to visit his trade, that being in 1904. He and Mrs. Spielman were the first persons to make the auto trip from Kansas City to St. Louis, and it was so much of an event that he reported progress to the Kansas City Star by telegraph. It took three days.

He was manager in turn of the old Southside Opera house and then of the one on North Main street. For five years he and Jack Fleagle were in the theater business, starting with the Orpheum, which Harry Ball built for them, and then expanding to the ownership of theaters at Muscatine, Ft. Madison and Centerville. This was from 1909 to 1914.

Mr. Spielman is a director in the First National bank, a member of the Golf club, the Walton club, a charter member of the Elks.