Alvin R. Springer, one of the prominent members of the Riley county bar, is descended from fine German stock, a people remarkable for their enterprise, energy, stability of purpose and loyalty to country. He was born in Riley county, Kansas, July 5, 1880, the son of Jacob and Sarah Ann (Harris) Springer. His grandparents, George and Mary Springer, were born in Germany, but emigrated from the Fatherland in the early '30s, settled in Pennsylvania and were married at Pittsburgh. George Springer was a shoemaker by trade and followed that vocation while residing in the Keystone State. Seven children were born to him and his wife: George, who lives in Pottawatomie county, and is the father of eight children, six of whom are living and all now married; William, a resident of Riley county, who has four children and three grandchildren; John, deceased, who reared a family of four, and if alive would be enjoying his ten grandchildren; Jacob, who has eight children and seven grandchildren; Henry, who lives in Riley county, the father of five children and grandfather of three; Mary, deceased, who became the wife of L. D. Pierce, deceased, who had five children and five grandchildren; and Rudolph, who has two children and two grandchildren and now resides in the State of Oregon. In 1868 Mr. Springer joined that great army of men who came to Kansas to obtain good farms upon the prairies. At the time of his arrival he had about $2,000, which he invested in land, and his entire family began to give their attention to agriculture. This is also true of the second generation with the exception of three, one being a carpenter, the second a merchant, and Alvin, the subject of this sketch, a lawyer. Almost from the first the Springers saw that there was money to be made in raising and feeding cattle for the Kansas City market. The aggregate wealth of the family is over a million dollars. All are Kansans by birth or adoption, with the exception of Rudolph and his family, who live in Oregon, and one of Jacob's daughters, a resident of Texas. George Springer bought land in Pottawatomie county and the sons homesteaded farms in the vicinity. They have added to their first holdings during the forty-two years the family has been in the state until they own about 15,000 acres of the finest arable land in eastern Kansas. George Springer died at his country home in the early '70s and his wife survived him only about ten years. Jacob Springer, born in Pennsylvania in 1846, was reared and educated there and at twenty-two years of age accompanied his parents to their new western home. He homesteaded a farm near his father; added in time to the original farm in Riley county; then moved to Pottawatomie county, where he has lived for thirty years, being one of the largest landed proprietors in the locality and a prominent and prosperous cattle man. Sarah Ann Harris, Alvin's mother, was the daughter of Gen. George and Elizabeth Harris, who were natives of England. They emigrated from the Mother Country in the early '30s and first located in Pennsylvania, but heard of the fine farms in Kansas and moved to this state in 1871. Mrs, Harris died in 1905, but General Harris still lives in Pottawatomie county, having attained the ripe old age of ninety-one years. He and his wife had a family of fourteen children, eight of whom are still living, seven in Kansas. General Harris is a patriarch, as he has thirty-five grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren. Nearly all are farmers and stock raisers of Riley and Pottawatomie counties, except Albert, a machinist, who lives in the State of Washington. Seven chilIren were born to Jacob and Sarah Springer: Gilbert, a farmer in Pottawatomie county; Mabel, wife of A. W. Bender, who lives in Texas; Alvin; Charles, who resides in Pottawatomie county and married Ruth, the daughter of I. L. Inskeep, in 1909; Emma, at home; Raymond J., a farmer and stockman of Riley county; and Sadie, also at home.

Alvin R. Springer was reared on his father's farm in Pottawatomie county, led the happy, normal life of a country boy, attended the district school near his home and then took an academic course at Lane University at Lecompton, Kan. Having determined to make the profession of law his life work, he then entered the law departnient of the University of Kansas, at Lawrence, where he graduated with the class of 1900, with the degree of LL. B., when only nineteen years of age. He opened an office and began the practice of his profession at Manhattan in the fall of 1900, where he has since remained. From the first Mr. Springer met with success. He has ability and has prospered. In 1905 he was united in marriage with Lulu, the youngest daughter of J. F. and Julia O'Daniel, and they have one child, Donald O'Daniel. He is a supporter of the Republican party, a Presbyterian in religious belief, and his fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he also belongs to the Commercial Law League of America.