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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