Moses Springer
Moses Springer
Moses Springer, my gg-grandfather, was born to Benjamin and Mary Springer in 1824 in the Waterloo region of Ontario, Canada. After the death of his parents, he went to live with and was raised by a Mennonite bishop names Joseph Hagey.
As an adult, Moses worked as a farmer, teacher, and surveyor until the early 1850s, when he purchased and ran the German-language newspaper in Waterloo, Ontario, and worked as a merchant there. A well-known civic and business leader, Moses served as the first president of the Waterloo Mutual Fire Insurance Company; Waterloo's first reeve, a position to which he was re-elected repeatedly; Waterloo's first mayor, serving two terms; North Waterloo's first member of the Provisional Parliament; and Waterloo County sherrif, a position he held from 1881 until his death in 1898.
He and his first wife, Barbara Shantz, were married in 1845 and had a bunch of children, one of whom was Moses S. "Mose" Springer.
But here's the really cool part: when I was doing research about Moses, I stumbled on some information that made me even more interested in his wife (my gg-grandmother), Barbara Shantz. It turns out that her mother's side of the family--several generations earlier--had also immigrated to Canada, but from...wait for it...no, you won't believe it: Lititz! I learned that my gggggg-grandfather, Christian Eby, built a house in 1754 about three miles north of where I live. The house is still there, as is the family graveyard. Christian's granddaughter was part of the Mennonite migration from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Canada in 1807, and one of her decendents was my gg-grandmother, Barbara Shantz. That story is fascinating in and of itself and it's been great to be able to do research about it here locally. (For more on this, see the Random Stuff I Learned tab.)
As an adult, Moses worked as a farmer, teacher, and surveyor until the early 1850s, when he purchased and ran the German-language newspaper in Waterloo, Ontario, and worked as a merchant there. A well-known civic and business leader, Moses served as the first president of the Waterloo Mutual Fire Insurance Company; Waterloo's first reeve, a position to which he was re-elected repeatedly; Waterloo's first mayor, serving two terms; North Waterloo's first member of the Provisional Parliament; and Waterloo County sherrif, a position he held from 1881 until his death in 1898.
He and his first wife, Barbara Shantz, were married in 1845 and had a bunch of children, one of whom was Moses S. "Mose" Springer.
But here's the really cool part: when I was doing research about Moses, I stumbled on some information that made me even more interested in his wife (my gg-grandmother), Barbara Shantz. It turns out that her mother's side of the family--several generations earlier--had also immigrated to Canada, but from...wait for it...no, you won't believe it: Lititz! I learned that my gggggg-grandfather, Christian Eby, built a house in 1754 about three miles north of where I live. The house is still there, as is the family graveyard. Christian's granddaughter was part of the Mennonite migration from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Canada in 1807, and one of her decendents was my gg-grandmother, Barbara Shantz. That story is fascinating in and of itself and it's been great to be able to do research about it here locally. (For more on this, see the Random Stuff I Learned tab.)