James Springer

Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Fayette County by Gresham and
Wiley, 1889, p392
	James M Springer is one of the old families of the county. His great
grandfather, Micheal Springer, was a native of Switzerland but came to
the county during its earliest settlement. He took a tomahawk claim upon
four hundred acres of land in the western part of what is now known as
Washington township. 
	His son, Daniel Springer, the father of James M Springer, inherited a
part of this land where he lived all of his life as a farmer.  He was a
soldier in the war with England in 1812-1815. After he came out of the
war, he settled down to the quiet life of a farmer and continued that
occupation till his death in March, 1845.
	Joseph Springer, his son and the father of the subject of this sketch,
was born in Fayette county in 1795 where he died in 1872. He was a farmer
and reared a large family of children.
	He married Margaret Driver who was born and reared in York county near
the town of York, Penna. She was born in 1794 and died in 1865, and was
the mother of twelve children, ten of whom reached manhood and womanhood.
	James M Springer was born May 22, 1826, in Washington township, Fayette
county, near the borough of Belle Vernon. He was reared on a farm till
nineteen years of age, when he learned the cabinetmaker's business with
John B Springer, a cousin of his, and served two years apprenticeship.
	He married Miss Sarah A Reeves, daughter of Samuel Reeves and Nancy
Palmer Reeves, both natives of Westmoreland county, Penna. To this union
were born nine children: Laura A Springer, Orville R Springer, Amanda C
Springer, Nancy M Springer, Robert D Springer and Joseph O Springer,
twins, Anna Springer, Lizzie M Springer and Frank A Springer, all of whom
are still living.  The eldest lives in this county, the second in
Pittsburgh, Nancy M in Westmoreland and the others in Belle Vernon. 
	James M Springer has been successfully engaged in the cabinet and
undertaker business at Belle Vernon for twenty five years. In 1855 he was
elected justice of the peace and has served as such ever since. He was
appointed a notary public in 1875, still holds a commission for that
office and has also been burgess of the borough for three years. In 1860
he was ordained as minister in the Free Will Baptist church. In 1863 he
attached himself to the Church of the Disciples and has been a member and
an elder of that denomination ever since.