Urias S. Springer, V.S. Urias S. Springer, V.S., of No. 112 North Ionia street, Grand Rapids, Mich., was born in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, January 19, 1856, a son of Moses and Barbara (Shantz) Springer, the former of whom was a native of Doon, Ontario, Canada, and the latter of Ohio. These parents were married in Waterloo, the mother of Mrs. Springer having gone from Ohio to Canada when there daughter was a mere child. Moses Springer was born August 31, 1824, and was a son of Benjamin and Mary Springer. He was of remote Holland extraction, his great-grandfather having been a clergyman of the Episcopal church in that country, but later went to Sweden, where he became a bishop and also a baron. Charles Christoper Springer, a son of the bishop and baron, was educated for the Episcopal ministry and came to America in 1665, thus being the founder of the family on this side of the Atlantic. Moses was a man of sterling integrity and great prominence in his community, served as a member of the Canadian parliament and was sheriff of Waterloo county at the time of his death, September 5, 1898. He had been three times married—his first wife, Barbara Shantz, having been born August 11, 1825, and dying October 13, 1884, the mother of six sons and six daughters, of which family ten still survive. To the two subsequent marriages no children were born. Dr. Urias S. Springer was the sixth child born to his parents. He received a sound literary education at Waterloo central school, which he attended until about sixteen years of age, and then, for a brief period, was employed in a machine shop. He supplemented his central school education by an attendance at the Berlin Collegiate school, from which he graduated at the age of twenty years, and then entered the Toronto Veterinary college, where he pursued a full course of study, and while still a student had charge, for a time, of the professor’s practice. He took the highest honors of his class and was graduated with the degree of V. S. Immediately after this event, in 1880, he went to Tipton, Iowa, at the solicitation of a number of stock breeders, and with the highest recommendations from his tutors, and remained there until 1887, when he came to Grand Rapids, and from the first until the present has enjoyed a lucrative practice in the city and surrounding country. Dr. Springer was joined in matrimony, January 1, 1890, at Preston, Waterloo county, Ontario, with Miss Lucena Clemens, a native of that city, and a daughter of Joel and Magdalina (Shoemaker) Clemens, both natives of Canada and the father a retired farmer of wealth, now residing with his wife at Preston, Waterloo county, Ontario. Mrs. Springer grew to womanhood on her father’s farm, but was educated in Zion, where she received special instruction in vocal music, and was for eleven years the leading soprano in the Methodist Episcopal church at Preston. Dr. Springer is a member of the I. O. O. F., which he joined in Grand Rapids, and in which he has filled the principal chairs of his lodge, and has represented it, beside, in the grand lodge; he is also a member of the Royal Arcanum. He was also a member of the Iowa State Veterinary society and its secretary for some years, but resigned on coming to Grand Rapids. The doctor and wife are members of the Fountain street Baptist church, this city, and Mrs. Springer is a member of all the church societies and very active both in church and Sunday-school work. In politics the doctor is a republican, but he does not confine himself to party lines in local affairs. He is devoted to his profession and keeps himself supplied with all helpful publications, being an everlasting student, and no one stands higher than he in the veterinary art.