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Trails to the Past

Iowa

Iowa County

Biographies

 

Progressive Men of Iowa
1899

 

PUGH, Robert Wood, born August 29, 1858, near Muscatine, Iowa. His father, Jonathan G. Pugh, was born at Mansfield, Ohio, January 12, 1825, and served as a soldier in the war with Mexico, and in 1849, with his brother, Dr. J. W. Pugh, went to California, where they were quite successful and after a few months returned with a good supply of gold dust. The next season the two returned by team on the over land route to California. J. W. settled there and became a prominent and influential man in the community. He was elected to the legislature of that state and chosen speaker of the house. Jonathan G. returned to Ohio and in 1854 he made a trip to Iowa and entered a large tract of government land in Poweshiek and Mahaska counties and later removed to Iowa. November 25, 1857, he was married at Muscatine, Iowa, to Miss Harriet V. Baker, who was a school teacher, and the daughter of Isaac and Clarinda Baker, of Bainbridge, Ohio. They settled on a farm near Muscatine, Iowa, and Mr. Pugh became largely engaged in the stock business. 

Robert Wood is their oldest son. His education began at home under his mother's instruction and was later continued in the country schools. His success in life has been largely due to the excellent instruction, advice, and care she bestowed upon him in boyhood. In 1876 the family removed to their farm near Deep River, in Poweshiek county. R. W. soon afterward attended a normal institute and secured a certificate to teach. After teaching a few terms he took a course of instruction at the Southern Iowa normal, at Bloomfield. For several years he worked on the farm in summer and taught school in the winter.  In the years 1880 and 1881 he taught school in Kansas. Returning to Iowa, he continued teaching. In 1882 he went to school at the Iowa City academy and afterwards returned to teaching. He was a close student and an excellent teacher. In 1885 he was professor of penmanship and book-keeping in the Iowa City academy for two terms. In 1884 he decided to study law, and, procuring some books, gave his leisure hours to reading law. In September, 1885, he entered the law department of the State university and graduated in June, 1886, with the degree of LL. B. In 1886 he entered upon the practice of his profession at Williamsburg, Iowa, where he has remained to the present time.

He has served as mayor of the town, secretary of the school board, and trustee of the First Presbyterian church.  In 1896 he served as one of the committee appointed by the supreme court to examine the students of the class of 1896 at the State University of Iowa for admission to the bar.

He was married at Williamsburg, Iowa, December 24, 1888, to Miss Mary H. Long, a school teacher, and a daughter of James and Catharine T. Long. They have four children, Helen, Robert E., John and Mary L. The Longs were early settlers of Iowa county, and came from Columbus, Ohio.  Mr. Pugh is an able lawyer, has a large practice, and a wide reputation as a commercial lawyer. He is a member of the Iowa State Bar association, which he helped to organize. He is also a member of the Commercial Law League of America.  He is an active republican and a good campaign speaker. In the campaign of 1896 ne was a member of the county central committee and in the fall of 1898 was elected county attorney of Iowa county.  Mr. Pugh is a genial man, always ready to accommodate a friend, and modest and unassuming in his manners.

SPERING, Francis Edwin, born in Northampton county, Penn., January 13, 1826; died in Marengo, Iowa, July 25, 1892; was for many years' editor of the Marengo Republican and was for seventeen years connected with the New York Herald, most of the time in the responsible position of day foreman. His father, William E.  Spering, was a lawyer of favorable repute in his section of the state, who was honored with numerous public trusts, and was married to Hannah Ewing, who came of a highly respected family and is spoken of as a Christian lady of noble aspirations and rare attainments. They brought up a family of eight sons and three daughters, of whom Francis was the sixth son.

The latter was early thrown upon his own resources, and having energy, ambition and a fixed purpose in life, he succeeded, though he had only a common school education.  At the age of 11 years he began his life as an apprentice in the office of the Northampton Whig, a small weekly newspaper published in his hometown. At the age of 14 he had mastered his trade and accepted a position on the Jeffersonian Republican, in Stroudsburg, Penn. At the close of the Harrison campaign in 1844, with a partner, he took charge of the paper. Although young and inexperienced and having very small capital, they were successful and the partnership continued until the winter of 1848, when young Spering retired and the following spring went to Honsdale, Penn, and took charge of a democratic paper at that place, where he remained until January, 1849. In May, 1849, he went to New York and entered the composing room of the New York Herald. Close attention to his work soon gained the appreciation of his employers and he was made day foreman of the Herald composing room at the age of 23 years, occupying a position of great responsibility and trust on one of the greatest daily newspapers in the world. His seventeen years of continuous service on the Herald marked an epoch of the most rapid strides of advancement in the history of journalism, embracing the active years of the career of James Gordon Bennett, Sr., including the stirring times before and during the civil war and reaching well down into the period of reconstruction. It was the best kind of schooling for Mr. Spering and he soon developed into a writer of recognized force and ability; but he decided to establish a business of his own, though he might have attained distinction in New York. The west offered wonderful opportunities. Cities were springing up and the wilderness was fast developing into a blaze of activity and improvement. Mr. Spering severed his connection with the Herald and started west. 

In July, 1866, he bought the Montezuma Republican, In the thriving county seat of Poweshiek county, which he conducted until the following February, when he removed to Marengo, the county seat of Iowa county, and purchased a half interest in the Marengo Republican, having as a partner, H. R Crenshaw, a popular young soldier, well qualified for the work. The paper soon took rank among the best weekly publications in the state and the partnership was continued until the spring of 1884, when Mr. Spering bought his partner's share and continued the business as editor and proprietor until his death.

Mr. Spering was a whig until the disorganization of that party, when he assisted in organizing the republican party and devoted his masterly talent as a thinker and writer to the service of that party during the rest of his life. He was postmaster at Marengo under the Grant administration and held a number of minor positions of honor and trust in the community. He was a devout member of the Episcopal church and was for many years vestryman at Marengo. During his younger years he was somewhat of a leader in society, but during the latter part of his life he was devoted exclusively to the interests of his business and to the comforts of his home. While he had a warm heart, willing hand and kind disposition, he had a gruff exterior which sometimes made him misunderstood. He was thoroughly devoted to business and when failing health rendered him unable to make his daily visits to his office he failed rapidly.

In 1857 Mr. Spering was married in New York to Mrs. Margaret Williams, a Christian woman of respectibility and refinement, who died in 1862. They had no children. In 1864 he was married to Miss Phoebe West of Milford, Penn., a cultivated and refined young woman of a highly respected family, who survived him as his widow. To them was born one child, Louise, who died in infancy.

 

 

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