Charles A. Spring
Charles A. Spring | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | January 17, 1892 | (aged 91)
Spouse | Dorothy B. Norton |
Children | 6, including Charles A. Spring Jr. |
Parent | Samuel Spring Sr. |
Relatives | Gardiner Spring (brother) |
Charles A. Spring (July 25, 1800 – January 17, 1892) was an American merchant and religious leader. He had a profound impact on
Early life in the East
Charles A. Spring was the second youngest of the children of the Rev.
After his father's death in 1819, Charles moved south to Boston, and went to work as a merchant, dealing in silk goods and textiles. In 1823, he married Dorothy B. Norton of Maine. Three of their children were born in Boston: Frances Eliza, Charles A. Spring Jr., and Winthrop Norton. Sometime before 1830, the family moved to Brooklyn, where daughters Edwina and Gertrude, as well as son George Hopkins, were born.
Life in the Old Northwest
In 1837, the Springs went west as part of the Great Migration, and settled first at Rock Island, Illinois on the Mississippi River. At the time, the journey from New York to Illinois took one month, and was made by the way of the Erie Canal and then the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Charles helped lay out and survey the town of Rock Island, where he settled into farming. By the 1840s, he was an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Rock Island, and was the sole layman on the committee that organized, in November 1844, the First Presbyterian Church of Sterling, Illinois. The Spring farm at Rock Island, in 1850, was spread over 100 acres, and had in the way of livestock 2 horses, 16 milch cows, 20 other cattle, and 20 swine, which produced 400 lbs of butter. The produce included 1600 bushels of Indian Corn, 100 bu. of oats, 100 of Irish potatoes, 20 of sweet potatoes, and 50 tons of hay.
By 1851, Charles Spring and family had moved to Chicago; in November of that year, his wife Dorothy died. Charles pere et fils went into the boot and shoe business under the name C. A. Spring & Sons, locating at 188 Lake St. They lived in Hyde Park for a time, but by 1855 were in West Chicago, living on Fulton between Union and Halsted. By 1858, Charles took to farming again in Manteno, just south of Chicago.
Relationship with Cyrus McCormick and church work
While in Chicago, Charles Sr. became superintendent of the Sunday school at the
During the 1850s, Charles was instrumental in the founding of what eventually became the
McCormick thus set his sights on securing a seminary which would advance orthodox Presybyterian doctrine. An Indiana seminary was in dire straits, and when the General Assembly met in Indianapolis in 1859 to discuss its future, McCormick, acting through Spring (who was a delegate), offered the seminary an endowment of $100,000 on the condition that the Seminary locate in Chicago and that the General Assembly take control of it from the synods. This was an offer that the General Assembly couldn't refuse, and so the Seminary found its new home in Chicago.[1]
Charles A. Spring was also instrumental in gaining the donation of some of the land for the seminary, from the brewers Lill & Diversey. He sat on the Seminary's Board of Directors from 1859 to 1876 (when he relocated to Western Iowa).[1] In an 1872 letter, McCormick gave his friend Spring the credit for the founding of the seminary, referring to Spring as “the most aged and experienced of us all, and to whom I was myself indebted for the original suggestion and advice to make the donation to this cause", the seminary.[1]
In 1859, Charles guided the creation of the First Presbyterian Church of Manteno, Illinois, securing a donation from McCormick which funded nearly half of the amount necessary for the building of the church. In 1866, he gave the parsonage as a gift (it burned down soon after his death, in 1895).[1]
In 1861, Charles was a delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Philadelphia which considered the Gardiner Spring Resolutions propounded by his brother, Rev. Gardiner Spring, of New York City. The assembly finally approved the resolutions, which meant the church would stand behind Abraham Lincoln's attempts to keep the Union intact.[1]
In 1865, Spring cared for William Sanderson McCormick, the inventor's brother and partner, during his long illness. When William died that fall, Charles A. Spring Jr. took over the management of the McCormick Co., as well as McCormick's extensive real estate holdings. The elder Spring often helped his son in this, especially during the busy spring leasing season.[1]
Charles Sr. repeatedly tried to convince McCormick to carry out one of William's last wishes, which was to found a home for young girls (age 5–10) to save them from “destructive Parental & other influence” and to clothe, feed, and educate them in a religious environment. Charles himself had successfully petitioned the Chicago City Council to set aside funds to establish the Chicago Reform School for Boys, one of the first of its kind in the nation. According to Hutchinson, McCormick's biographer, Charles believed that “too much emphasis was placed upon punishment, and not enough upon the prevention of crime.[1]
Later life
By 1868, Charles's eyesight was failing, but he was still farming, living most of the year with his daughters Edwina and Frances and sons George and Winthrop in
In 1877–1878, Charles retired and moved to
Charles A. Spring Sr., died on January 17, 1892, at the age of 91, from complications of 'la grippe'
Descendants
Charles's eldest son,