Moses Springer Biography

B.:1824 D.:1898
Married: Barbara Shantz; Mrs. Louis Zoerger; Mrs. Sophie Bowman

Moses Springer was a member of the noted Springer Family whose history goes back to Sweden in the 1600s. A Charles Christopher Springer settled in Delaware in 1700 and a descendant Rev. David Springer was killed in a skirmish during the American Revolution. David’s wife Margaret and family finally came to the early settlement of Hamilton [with] her son, Benjamin. Moses Springer was born on a farm in Oxford County near New Dundee. He was orphaned when his parents died in the cholera epidemic of 1834 and Moses was raised by Bishop Joseph Hagey and wife of Hespeler. Moses Springer was perhaps one of the most influential citizens in early Waterloo. With a good education provided by his adopted parents, he first became a teacher as well as a self-taught surveyor. About 1854 he moved to the unincorporated village of Waterloo where he ran a German language newspaper Der Canadische Bauernfreund that he purchased from Jacob Teuscher.

In 1856 he opened a conveyance (grocery) store which sold dry goods, groceries, hardware crockery and wines and liquors. When the village of Waterloo was incorporated in 1857 he was the first reeve and in 1876 was the first town mayor. Springer served for 33 years on school board and for 25 years as chairman. He had many business interests being a silent partner in Simon Snyder’s Drug Store and he was instrumental in the formation of the first fire insurance company in 1863 - the Waterloo Mutual Fire Insurance Company and was its first President. In 1868 he cooperated in the first life assurance co. in Waterloo – the Ontario Mutual Life Assurance Co. (now Clarica). He was also interested in provincial politics and was elected M.P.P. for Waterloo North in 1867. Finally in 1881 sheriff of Waterloo County with offices in the Country Building in Berlin.

Sources:
1. Waterloo County Hall of Fame.
2. Waterloo Mt. Hope Cemetery Records.
3. Springer Family History, Kitchener Public Library.
4. Marg Rowell et al, Welcome to Waterloo.
5. Waterloo County Councillors: A Collective Biography.
6. Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Feb. 12, 1953.
November 2, 1963.
November 21, 1973.
7. Obituary, Berlin News Record, September 6, 1898.
8 Historical Atlas of Waterloo and Wellington Counties.
9. Waterloo Hist Soc, 1941, Vol. 28 p. 142 (Pic)
10. Wat Hist Soc, 1984 Vol 72 p. 119 (Pic) The Sheriffs of Wat Co.
11. Wat Hist Soc 1963, Vol. 51
12. Waterloo Chronicle: June 8, 1961; June 19, 1968; Apr 2, 1980; May 20, 1982.
13. A Century of Mutuality.
14. Waterloo Chronicle, June 19/68.