We have not yet officially entered the season of Spring, but it is certainly feeling like it around here these days. We even started letting some fresh air into the house yesterday. So, it seems appropriate that I located the story of a Springer for today’s post.

Ludwig Peter Michael Springer was born on March 13, 1895, so today would be his 130th birthday. Like many others named Ludwig back in those days, this boy would eventually go by the name, Louis. He was the son of Peter and Louisa (Seiler) Springer. Louis was baptized at Cross Congregation, which was a short-lived Lutheran congregation not far from Longtown. The Ancestry.com Missouri Synod collection contains some records from that congregation, so I am able to display Louis’s baptism record below.

Louis is found in the 1900 census at the age of 5. His father was a farmer in the Bois Brule Township.

His father died in 1904 when Louis was just 9 years old. In the 1910 census, Louis was a teenager, and his widowed mother was the head of the Springer household. Louis was one of three children in this family.

The plat maps for Perry County that were produced in 1915 show a piece of property in the name of L. Springer located in Point Rest, a small community located along the Mississippi River near Menfro.

Louis had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. He is given a Point Rest address. He is described as being a fireman on a river steamer employed by the Kansas City Missouri River Navigation Company.

It looks like Louis attempted to say his occupation should exempt him for military service, but that did not succeed. Louis was called into service during that war and became part of the U.S. Army. He was also sent overseas and spent about 6 months there according to the military record shown here.

An application form completed after his death for a military headstone gives more details about his time in the military.

After his discharge, we find Louis back living with his mother and an older brother, Otto. His mother is called the farmer in this entry with both Otto and Louis laboring on that farm in the Bois Brule Township.

That leads us up to Louis’s marriage in the 1920’s, so we will now look at the woman who became his bride. Her name was Isabella Agnes Mehner, who was born on January 16, 1905. Isabell was the daughter of Martin and Charlotte (Hoehn) Mehner. She was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in Longtown. We can view her baptism record from that congregation’s books below.

The final “a” in her name was eventually dropped, and I will now use the spelling, Isabell, for her. She is found in the 1910 census at the age of 4. Her Mehner family had moved from Perry County to Cape Girardeau where her father was a merchant at a grocery.

The Mehner’s did not remain in Cape Girardeau because, by the time of the 1920 census, we once again find them living in Perry County. Isabell was 15 years old, and her father was a farmer in the Bois Brule Township.

The 1915 plat maps show two parcels of land located near the Mississippi River and also near Point Rest and Menfro, that belonged to Isabell’s grandfather, Fred Mehner. It is possible that this is where Isabella was living in 1920.

Louis Springer married Isabell Mehner on October 11, 1925 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Point Rest. A transcription of his church marriage record is found in a binder we have of records from that congregation.

The Missouri marriage license for this couple is pictured here. It says Louis was from Point Rest, and Isabell was from Menfro. Rev. Fischer was the pastor at Trinity, Point Rest at that time.

I can also show this marriage certificate for Louis and Isabell.

I think that Louis and Isabell had 5 children, but our German Family Tree just lists 2 of them. The GFT says those two were baptized at Trinity, Point Rest, but the binder we have only includes baptism records up to 1921, so I am not able to show you any records from that binder. In the 1930 census, there were 2 daughters in the Springer household, and Louis was a farmer.

In the 1940 census, the Springer’s were living in Menfro with 4 children. Louis’s job was described as PWA dragline…levy work. There was a big flood that occurred in 1927, and I believe the levy was breached. Perhaps Louis was working on the levy that had to be rebuilt after that flood.

The Springer’s relocated during the next decade. When the 1950 census was taken, they were living in Cape Girardeau. One more child had been born during the previous decade. Not only was Louis working at the shoe factory in Cape Girardeau, but so were 3 of his daughters.

Louis Springer died in 1974 at the age of 78; Isabell Springer died in 1995 at the age of 89. Louis and Isabell are buried together in the New Lorimer Cemetery in Cape Girardeau. We cannot see any evidence of Louis’s military experience in the photo below, but perhaps such a plaque may be found on the back of the stone.

Although members of the Mehner and Springer families lived in a few different places, they never ventured far from the Mississippi River and must have been impacted by the occasional floods in the river bottoms. Even after their move to Cape Girardeau, the Springer/Mehner couple remained very close to the Mighty Mississippi.