Jacob Spreng
Jacob Spreng is the oldest representative of this family now living in Holmes County. (The spelling of this name has been changed by the different generations, but Spreng is the original orthography.) When seventeen years old Christina Spreng joined Napoleon's army, and for twenty years was a soldier in the French army. In 1828 he and his wife Magdaline (Heinberger) Spreng, with their five children, left Alsace, France, for America. On landing in America he proceeded to Canton, Ohio, where he remained a few weeks, and then settled on Section 27, Washington Township, Holmes County, and he and a brother and a man named Michael Rollins took up 160 acres of land on Section 28, same township. Mr. Spreng sold his third, and then took up 160 acres on Section 33, where he lived until an old man. He died in Ashland County, Ohio in 1860, aged eighty-four years. Their children were Christian, Frederick, Sarah, Jacob and Godfrey.
Jacob Spreng was born in 1823, and was five years of age when his parents came to America, and since that time his life has been spent in Holmes County, and the greater part of it has been spent on a farm. In addition to attending to the cultivation of his farm he has for thirty years operated a threshing machine for the convenience of his neighbors, and this has been the source of considerable income. He now owns 175 acres of valuable land in Washington Township, which is under cullitvation, and his residence and farm buildings are comfortable and commodious. He has met with financial difficulties by over-confidence in friends, which has been a serious loss to him, but by good management he has a pleasant home and a comfortable heritage for his old age. Mr. Spreng was married in 1846 to Catharine, daughter of John Jund, and they have eight children: Godfrey, George W., Macdala, Jacob, Christian C., Caroline C., Mary M., and William W. In politics Mr. Spreng is a Democrat; he and his wife are members of the Lutheran Church.
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Wayne and Holmes, Ohio, J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1889