Francis G. Springer was born around 1839 in New Jersey to Joseph Springer and Eliza Ludlam. His father was a merchant and farmer who owned $2,500 of real estate and $500 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Dennis, New Jersey, and he married Elizabeth J. Foster on January 23, 1859. They had at least eight children: Caroline, born around 1859; Lucy, born around 1861; Eliza, born around 1862; Frank, born around 1864; Harry, born around 1866; Wallace, born around 1868; Alice, born around 1873; and Nellie, born around 1878. They lived in Maurice River, New Jersey, and Springer worked as a ship captain. By 1860, he owned $75 of personal property.
Springer enlisted in the Union army on January 4, 1864, and he mustered in as a private in Company A of the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry on January 26. The regiment took part in the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, the Battle of Cold Harbor, and the Appomattox campaign.
He supported Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864, telling his parents that the president was “the man to run this meshine [machine] for he has run it soe well an so long he has just got the hang noe [now].” Springer mustered out in Washington, D.C., on August 1, 1865. The family settled in Menard County, Illinois, after the war, and Springer worked as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $500 of personal property. He applied for a federal pension in Jun 1877 and eventually secured one.
By 1880, they were living in Salt Creek, Illinois, and by 1900, they were living in Independence, Kansas. By 1900, they were living in their daughter Nellie’s household in Independence. His wife died around 1912. Nellie and her husband moved to Chelsea, Michigan, in the 1910s, and Springer accompanied them. He died there of heart disease on March 8, 1921.