is deceased; Mary is also deceased, Sarah is the wife of 'Paul Rodenburger, a farmer of Kansas, and William Waitt is the subject of this sketch. The parents of these children were natives of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, respectively, and both are now deceased, the father having passed away in his eighty-third year. William Waitt Spring obtained his education in the old subscription schools of Putnam County, Ind., and subsequently taught school for about four winters. Early in life he entered a woolen factory in his native State, and for nineteen years gained a livelihood as a factory hand in Ohio and Indiana. At the age of twenty-seven years he commenced life on his own responsibility by immigrating from Indiana to Story County, Iowa. He had previously taken a companion for life in the person of Miss Amy Coffelt, and a native of the " Hoosier State," born October 1, 1834. Her father was born in Tennessee, and her mother was a native of North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Spring became the parents of ten children, six of whom survive. Those still living are: Margaret E. (who is the wife of B. W. D. Smith, an engineer by occupation, and makes her home in Nebraska), Lucy E. (who is the wife of Andrew Neilson, of Des Moines, Iowa), Ulysses S. (student in the Iowa Agricultural College, has chosen civil engineering as his profession, and is now perfecting himself in that science at the Iowa, Agricultural College), Edith May (graduated from the Capital City Commercial College of Des Moines, Iowa, now a stenographer in the employ of Chamberlin & Co., of Des Moines, Iowa), and Charles W. and Claude Finley (are both residing at home). Those deceased are: Agnes Caroline (died at the age of three years), William H. (died in his eighth year), John S. E. (died at the age of eleven months), and Martha L. (was eighteen years of age at the time of her death). Upon his arrival in Iowa, Mr. Spring found very few settlers, and but very few improvements. Indeed he it was who turned the first furrow in what is now the town of Ames, and assisted to plant the first fruit tree and rhubarb on the college farm. At the time that he located in Story County there were but four houses to be seen from Ontario to Nevada, a distance of about eleven miles, and the nearest markets were Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, a distance of seventy and eighty miles, and Mr. Spring relates how the Messrs. Coffelt hauled the first safe for Boone County from the Mississippi River, they being residents of Story County. Being a pioneer of this section, Mr. Spring was able to choose his own farm, and now owns 218 acres of very valuable land, on which he has erected a neat, comfortable residence, and good substantial out-buildings. He and wife both hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Ames, and have always contributed as far as possible to all laudable enterprises. The former is prominently identified with the " Grand Old Republican Party," and has ever been an ardent supporter of true Republican principles, and for a period of twenty-five years, not continuously, but at intervals, lie has held the office of assessor. He is one of the prominent, well-to-do farmers of Story County.
Prof. E. W. Stanton, in the department of mathematics and political economy of the Iowa State Agricultural College, was originally from Pennsylvania, his birth occurring in Waymart, Wayne County, on October 3, 1850. His parents, F. H. and Mary (Rounds) Stanton, were natives also of the Keystone State, and the father has followed agricultural pursuits all his life. Both are living, and reside on the old homestead in Pennsylvania, purchased by the grandfather in 1793. The great-grandfather, Asa Stanton, was a farmer by occupa-