Jones logo
Col. Chas F. Springer
Born February 8, 1830


COL. CHAS. F. SPRINGER, deceased; was a native of the State of Indiana, and was born in Sullivan Co., aug. 10, 1834; in 1848, he graduated with honor at Asbury University, Greencastle, Ind.; he received the degree of Master of Arts in 1861, and delivered the Masters' oration at the Commencement exercises; after completing his collegiate course he came to Illinois and located at Edwardsville, and entered the office of Judge Gillespie and commenccd reading law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859; he formed a copartnership in the practice of law with Hon. David Gillespie; after the breaking-out of the rebellion, he enlisted and was elected 1st Lieutenant, Co. K, 140th Ill. V.I.; his time having expired, he was mustered out; he returned home and assisted in the enlistment and organization of the 150th Regiment; he again entered the service as Captain in that regiment on the 24th of February, 1865; he was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel, and the following December was promoted and commissioned Colonel, and commanded the regiment until he was mustered out of the service on the 16th of January, 1866, after the close of the war.
In 1868, he was chosen Presidential Elector for the 12th Congressional Dist. of the State; in 1869, he was elected to represent this Senatorial Dist. in the Constitutional Convention; he was appointed a Delegate by Gov. Palmer, to the Capital Convention which assembled in Cincinnati, in which body he represented this Congressional District. In all public positions with which he was honored he discharged his duties with a degree of fidelity that was unsurpassed; his administration of public trusts won for him the unlimited confidence of his constituents. He was a consistent and exemplary member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was Superintendent of the Sabbath school for some years. He continued in the practice of his profession, except during the intervals of time when he was engaged in the discharge of public duties, until his death, which occurred November 15, 1870.
Mrs. Col. Charles F. Springer, formerly Miss Adelaide Isbell, is a second daughter of Rev. Bishop and Olive P. Isbell. She recalls, among her earliest memories, the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. Her education was early begun at home, and, when only 6 years of age, she began the study of the French language; at the age of 14, she began the work of instruction, receiving $15 for three months' service, and boarding around, sometimes walking five miles a day to reach the school; at the age of 16, she received a diploma from the State Normal School of New York; through the kindness of Bishop and Mrs. Hamline. intimate friends of her parents, she entered Oakland Female Seminary, and, by passing a satisfactory examination, she was admitted to the second term of the Senior year in January, and received a diploma as Mistress of English Literature the following August; in September, she taught the Sophomore Class in Hillsboro Female College, and continued the study of Greek, Latin and Music. The young girl whose joy was unbounded at receiving $5 per month, is now offered $500 for ten months. A wedding might very properly occur right here to a graduate of Indiana Asbury University, C. P. Springer by name. But the home in Iowa must be paid for, and all are doing their utmost to accomplish that; two years as Preceptress at Greencastle, one year at Epworth; three years, Principal at Marion; two years as Preceptress, in the Upper Iowa University, and the debt is canceled; another year in a private school and the war is over; and, on that: 5th of December, 1866, the joyous nuptials of Col. Charles F. Springer, (who joined the army as private, and returned at the head of his regiment) and Miss Adelaide Isbell, are celebrated in the M.E. Church, Anamosa, Iowa, her father performing the marriage service.
Removing to Edwardsville, Ill., four years of perfect blessedness were granted and a perfect home erected, in which they lived nearly two years, when death, who spares neither friend nor foe, but always takes the best. tore down this bright hearthstone and put out its altar fires. A year later, Mrs. Springer accepted a position in the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Ill.; but the death of her dear sister, Miss Eliza Isbell, and the failing health of her mother, rendered it necessary for her to return to Iowa, and, in the fall of 1872, she accepted the offer of the Board of Trustees of the Jones County Academy to become its Principal. The school had been organized one year before, and has continued under its present form for seven years; and those desiring to fit themselves for teachers and anxious for improvement, will find this institution very beneficial. Mrs. Springer has written considerable for the press; and her poem read before the Alumni of the Hillsboro Female College, June 7, 1877, was compared to Goldsmith's best efforts. Another poem, "Red, White and Bluc," read July 29, 1879, at the Temperance Jubilee at Clear Lake, was fully appreciated by the large audience. Her literary efforts as missionary and temperance essays or poems, have usually been prepared while busied with her home work, as she has kept house for her parents, without kitchen help, for the past six years. She is not satisfied with her literary work, and it would scarcely have been attempted but from her husband's express desire to have her write. She was present as Delegate to the Woman's International Temperance Convention in Philadelphia, and read an essay on temperance, and also delivered a missionary address. As Recording Secretary of the Woman's Temperance Union of Iowa, she did good service, and though exceedingly conservative in many of the plans of the day, she possesses a large measure of that charity which does not intrude upon others' convictions. An extended tour in Europe, Asia and Africa has greatly increased her general information.
Rev. Bishop Isbell is the son of Isbell and Mary Smedley, both natives of Massachusetts. The father dying in 1813, the mother married Cyrus Stratton in 1816, and came to Ellis, Hardin Co., Iowa, in 1858; she died December 13, 1865, at the ripe age of nearly 87 years. Bishop Isbell's early life was spent in Williamstown, Mass, where, at the age of 20, he became a member of the M.E. Church, and, a few years later, joined the Troy Conference; for twenty-five years he labored in this Conference, which embraced parts of Massachusetts and Vermont. He never counted thc sacrifices made as worthy a thought, although when he left secular work he was receiving several dollars a day, while the salary for young ministers was $100 per year, and, if married, the same for his wife; while as years passed on his usual salary was about $350, and never over $500. He has always been regarded as a deep thinker, a close student, a good linguist and a successful minister. Of his executive ability in a very important Church trial in 1855, Bishop Hamline said of him that "he was one of the best business men I have found in the whole Church." At his last appointment, Castleton, over one hundred were converted and added to the Church through his instrumentality. His health failing, he came to Iowa in May, 1858, and was followed by his family, wife and their three daughters, the following July; but he still retains his connection with the Troy Conference; since he came West, he has continued his work, often preaching twice each Sabbath; at one time, being Pastor of the M.E. Church at Anamosa, and for several years past, has preached on alternate Sabbaths in Cass Township, some nine miles from home. He has the esteem of the ministry and laymen in an especial degree. Although now 70 years of age, his mental powers seem on the increase, keeping up his knowledge of Greek and Latin, while his physical powers are in no way diminished. A poem falls from the point of his pen with no apparent effort. He is progressive in his ideas and keeps up with the current news of the day—occupying all his leisure moments in reading and writing. Among his neighbors, he bears the enviable reputation of an honest Christian man.
Mrs. Olive P. Martin (Mrs. Springer's mother), spent her girlhood days as a teacher, in Williamstown and North Adams, Mass.; and then shared for twenty-five years, with her husb:tnd (Rev. Bishop Isbell), the care of three children, and entertaining a constant round of guests, who regarded the minister's house a free hotel, did not prevent deep interest and aid in all the social, benevolent and religious reforms of the day, while these duties were supplemented by a teacher's task. Shortly after reaching Anamosa, Iowa, in the summer of 1868, a commodious stone house was erected one mile from town, to which a school building was added, and the Hazel Knoll Family Boarding School was established, and was continued fourteen years by the personal instruction of Mrs. Isbell and her eldest daughter, Miss Eliza Isbell. The latter, a native of Massachusetts, was an artist of unusua1 talent, and the home contains many rare paintings, the work of her skilled fingers, ere she passed to the better land, which occurred in July, 1872. She also possessed her father's poetic gift from a child. She became a Christian at 6 years of age. The mother was the queenly head of the school, the daughter the sun beam. They also did their share for the soldiers during the civil war, and in the different church enterprises of the city. A large number of those who were under their tuition are now filling honored places in the world. This mother, beautiful in her physical presence and in her dualities of mind and heart, was permitted to linger till April 25, 1879. To tell the struggles this noble woman made for intellectual culture and the inspiration for knowledge, or the sacrifices made by these parents to give their children every opportunity for education, would fill a volume. Lacking years of her "three score and ten," she seemed too young to die, when her work was so ripening under her hand.
The youngest daughter, Emily, now Mrs. Hon. J. M. King, is a native of St. Albans, Vt., and was but a child when she came to Iowa, and yet had acquired quite a good knowledge of instrumental music, as she began that branch of study at 9 years of age. She aided in the Music Department of the Hazel Knoll School; and for several years has been considered a pianist of extraordinary ability. She is quite a pleasing writer of both poetry and prose, the latter of fictitious style with instructive moral. She has been exceedingly unfortunate in the accidental death of her betrothed (a graduate of Allegan College, and only 28 years of age), by a fall from his horse, in Middle Park, Colo., in July, 1872. Two years later (1876), she married a highly cultured gentleman of Philadelphia, who lived but five days. Three years later, in March, 1879, she was married, by her father, in the M.E. Church, to the Hon. J. M. King, of Cascade, where she is now pleasantly located. She spent five years in Colorado.

Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1879, page 579.

image

© Copyright 1997-2013, The Art Department, © Copyright 2014-2020, Richard Harrison.
Last updated on Friday, 16-Apr-2021 16:53:33 MST