Representative Arthur Springer View All Years

HONORABLE ARTHUR SPRINGER

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee appointed to prepare resolutions commemorative of the life, character and public services of the late Honorable Arthur Springer, of Louisa county, Iowa, beg leave to submit the following report:

Arthur Springer, the son of Judge Francis Springer and Nancy Colman Springer, was born near Columbus Junction, Louisa county, Iowa, on September 30, 1855, and passed away at his home in Wapello, Iowa, on December 9, 1936. The son of a distinguished pioneer family, he was the last to go, having been preceded in death by a brother, Charles, a brother, Frank, and a sister Nellie S. Letts, widow of Hilton Letts. A third brother, Warren C. Springer met death as a youth.

He received his early education in the schools of Columbus City township and later attended the law school at the State University of Iowa, where he graduated in the class of 1877.

After leaving the law school, Mr. Springer came back to Louisa county where he lived at Columbus Junction and entered the practice of law. His father being one of the important men of the state, Mr. Springer was early introduced into the activities and politics of the community. Being of a brilliant and retentive mind, he has been able to pass down to other generations much interesting lore, not only of the actual happenings of the early history of the county, but also anecdotes and commentaries upon the lives and characters of the sturdy pioneer people who were still here and active during his young manhood.

Shortly afterwards, he established himself at Fort Worth, Texas, which was then a frontier place, and remained there in his profession until the year 1899, when he returned to Wapello and continued actively to practice law until the time of his death.

Upon his return he was associated with Mr. H. W. Baker, now deceased, until Mr. Baker’s election to the office of County Auditor, after which time Mr. Springer practiced law by himself.

During his long and active career, many positions of honor and trust came to Mr. Springer. He represented his county in the State Legislature as a member of the House of Representatives of the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth General Assemblies; he served as Mayor of the city of Wapello and for more than twenty-five years was a member of the school board and was many times its president.

He has left behind him, in addition to his splendid influence, two imperishable monuments of his life. One of these is in the form of a written history of his native county, in which, by painstaking research, he preserved and handed down facts and records previous to this generation which, but for his efforts, would have been lost. But greater in his honor there stands as a part of the permanent body of the laws of this state pertaining to the subject of education and the public schools, the finest effort of his mind. Arthur Springer, distinguished son of his distinguished father, Francis Springer, who presided at the Constitutional Convention of the state of Iowa, also left his imperishable contribution to the structure of his commonwealth in the form of wise and liberal school laws. The betterment of education was more than a hobby with him, it was a passion—and his legislative career was crowned by his being recognized as one of the outstanding authorities upon, and benefactors of this cause, in the state. Through its championship, he found his greatest contribution to humanity, for he knew that without better understanding, and therefore better education, there could not be for succeeding generations better law, better government or better living.

The fullness of this lifetime of eighty years has been shared with us and it has left us with a feeling of gratitude therefor; in his departure we know an irreplaceable loss.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Forty-seventh General Assembly, That in the passing of the Honorable Arthur Springer, the state of Iowa has lost a valued and honored citizen, a man of great character and worth, and the House of Representatives of Iowa, by this resolution, tenders its sympathy to the family of the deceased.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

F. J. PINE,

F. A. LATCHAW,

E. L. STEWART,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted, April 19, 1937.