TITUS T. SPRINGER. Since locating in Moultrie County, the gentleman of whom we write has been very successful in a business way. His friends characterize him as a manly man and a gentleman, one with keen business instinct, who, although still young, has had wide experience, having been engaged in business for himself at eighteen years of age. He is the senior member of the firm of Skinner & Stocks, hardware merchants at Lake City, who also deal in farm implements.

Mr. Springer became a resident of Moultrie County in 1876 and for the past eight years has been engaged as a merchant at Lake City. He has been in his present business for only one year, but already it promises to be a pecuniary success. Our subject was born in the town of Jackson, Ill., January 1, 1852, and is the son of Lawson and Margaret (Hinson) Springer, natives of New York and Ohio respectively. The father of our subject was a farmer. He died in Jackson County, Ohio, in 1857 and left eight children, there being three sons and five daughters. Two daughters, Jenny and Lydia, died in early womanhood, and six members of the family grew to years of maturity and became heads of families of their own. Sarah married Ambrose Davis and is a resident of Ross County, Ohio; Louisa married Joseph Ziegler, also of Ross County, Ohio; Drusilla became the wife of Samuel Mulvana and lives at Burlington, Iowa; Pleasant is a resident of Jackson County, Ohio, and Wheeler of Moultrie County.

The original of our sketch is the youngest of his family. Reared on the home farm he received a good common-school education. In 1870 he went to Richmondale, Ohio, and engaged in a general mercantile business, continuing there until 1876, at which time he came to Moultrie Country and purchased a farm. For a time after coming here he engaged in the general merchandise business. Endowed with unusual financial and executive ability Mr. Springer has been successful in his business efforts. He was only twenty years of age when he came to this county and at the present time, besides the business above mentioned, he is the owner of a drug store at Lake City. He also deals in grain, coal and groceries, and at Williamsburg carries on a general mercantile business. He owns all the business houses in which he has stock and other property comprising dwellings and store buildings.

Mr. Springer was married in 1870 when but eighteen years of age to Miss Nancy Sinclair, a daughter of T. D. Sinclair. She is a native of Jackson County, Ohio, and was born January 17, 1851. Our subject and his wife have had six children. The oldest, Walter J., died in early boyhood. Five are living at the present time. Lawson is in charge of a store at Williamsburg; the others are Lydia, William, Charles and Jessie. He is a man who may always be depended upon in a political issue, being loyal to his county and section. He is a Justice of the Peace and a Notary, also a member of the School Board. Mr. Springer socially belongs to the Knights Templar.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, 1891 - p. 678/679

Transcription copyright 2003/2007, Moultrie County ILGenWeb/USGenWeb