Wilson Leverett Spring

Background

Leverett was born on January 5, 1840 at Grafton, Vermont, United States, the son of Edward and Martha (Atwood) Spring, and a descendant of John Spring who came from England and settled at Watertown, Massachussets, in 1634.

Education

He received his elementary education in Manchester, Vermont, and was graduated from the Burr and Burton Academy in 1858. After taking the degree of B. A. from Williams College in 1863, he entered the Theological Institute of Connecticut at Hartford, from which he was graduated in 1866; the following year he continued his studies at the Andover Theological Seminary, and began preaching.

Career

After serving as minister of the Plymouth Congregational Church of Lawrence, 1876-81, he became professor of belleslettres and English literature at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. During these years he wrote the book for which he is best known, Kansas: the Prelude to the War for the Union (1885), which he based not only upon printed sources but upon personal reminiscences collected from surviving pioneers.

In this book, the first nonpartisan account of the Kansas struggle, he was eminently fair to John Brown; however, he offended the admirers of that crusader who wanted nothing printed but panegyrics, and brought forth a storm of criticism by his account of the massacre of Dutch Henry's Crossing and other rash exploits of Brown. The book nevertheless has become the basis for later critical studies of the fight for Kansas.

In 1886 Spring became Morris Professor of Rhetoric at Williams, a position he held till he was retired in 1909 in his seventieth year. The remainder of his life he spent in Boston, where he died.

Achievements

• Leverett Wilson Spring's most famous works include Mark Hopkins, Teacher (1888); Williams College, Williamstown, Massachussets, Historical Sketch and Views (1904); and A History of Williams College (1917). He also wrote various other sketches of Williams College for college publications and cooperative works. To the proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society he contributed a sketch of Colonel Samuel Walker's visit to John Brown, "A Case of Church Discipline in the Berkshires", and "The Singular Case of a New England Clergyman".

Works

More photos

• book

  • Kansas: The prelude to the war for the union

    (High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Spring, Leverett Wil...)

  • Kansas: The Prelude to the War for the Union (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Kansas: The Prelude to the War for the Union...)

  • American Commonwealths; Kansas; The Prelude to the War for the Union. Revised Edition

    ( About the Book Military history texts discuss the histo...)

  • A History of Williams College

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • Mark Hopkins, Teacher

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Kansas; the Prelude to the war for the Union

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Kansas

    (Kansas - The prelude to the war for the union is an uncha...)

  • Mark Hopkins: Teacher (1888)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Williams College, Williamstown, Mass: Historical Sketch And Views

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • Kansas; the prelude to the war for the union 1907 Hardcover

    (Lang:- eng, Pages 367. Reprinted in 2015 with the help of...)

  • Kansas, the prelude to the war for the Union 1890 Hardcover

    (Lang:- eng, Pages 376. Reprinted in 2015 with the help of...)

  • A History of Willliams College
  • American Commonwealths: Kansas The Prelude to the Civil War for the Union (1892 Leatherbound)

Connections

After his formal education was completed, he was married on September 25, 1867, to Sarah Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of Professor William Thompson of Hartford. They had two children, a daughter, who died in 1888, and a son.

Father:

Edward Spring

Mother:

Martha (Atwood) Spring

Spouse:

Sarah Elizabeth Thompson