Springer, Francis (Rev.)

Born: 1810-03-19 Roxbury, Pennsylvania

Died: 1892-10-21 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: Springfield, Illinois

Springer attended Pennsylvania College and the Theological Seminary of the Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1836, the Lutheran Church licensed Springer to preach and he was ordained the following year. That same year, he married Mary Kriegh, with whom he had eight children. In 1839, Springer moved his family to Springfield, Illinois, where he taught school and worked as a preacher. They built a home (which was also used as a school and a Lutheran meeting house) on the southeast corner of Eighth and Jackson streets, and in 1844 they became the neighbors of the Lincoln family, who moved in across the street. In 1847, Springer moved his family to Hillsboro in order to run Hillsboro College, returning to Springfield in 1855. He served as a school commissioner and as superintendent of schools for Sangamon County until the outbreak of the Civil War, at which point he enlisted in the Union Army as a chaplain.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 675-76; Susan Krause, Kelley A. Boston, and Daniel W. Stowell, Now They Belong to the Ages (Springfield, IL: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2005), 134-36.