Capt. Jesse Springer

Claimed to be the son of Lt. Samuel Springer. That's fine, but the mother is unspecified.

DNA links a descendant of Jesse Springer to a Peacock descendant. Samuel's only wife is supposed to be Amy Smith, but almost nothing is known about her, except the marriage date of June 21, 1773, in Gloucester County, NJ (duly recorded).

If Jesse is indeed the son of an earlier Peacock wife, his year of birth must be two years earlier than it is usually given. I have looked for a birth record for him and found none, so I assume that the date is a recollection and may in fact not be perfectly accurate. But even more importantly, I found an older brother of Jesse's - Benjamin - who died in 1803, leaving a son Samuel behind who was under 14 years of age. There are no other Springers who could be that Benjamin's father, especially given that the death occurred on Cape May, NJ.

The conclusion is inescapable that Jesse was born in 1772, not 1774, and that the marriage with Amy Smith completely confused the genealogy so that Samuel's earlier marriage and children were forgotten.

Life

Patented a windmill design, as referenced in the following article:

The first recorded windmill in Cape May County was built in 1706 for Thomas Cresse. An early map of “Town Bank”, done in 1726 showed this mill on the map located on “Mill Island”. The next known mill was built in 1808 by Jesse Springer and served as a sawmill. The design for his windmill (1815) was patented which meant that no one else could copy it. Jesse Springer built a second windmill at Dias (Dyers) Creek on a hill at his own farm between 1810-1815. He and his son ran the mill until 1865. This sawmill cut wood for farmers and shipbuilders and the Springers even built some ships near the mill. The school house at Dias Creek built in 1836 was made with wood sawed at Springer’s Mill.

In 1820, Thomas Gandy Sr. built a mill in Seaville. Joshua Townsend operated a mill in Oceanview in 1822. There was a mill built by David Cresse in Cold Spring about 1830 which was a grist mill. There was a windmill on Shore Road in Seaville, built by Peter Corson in 1820, to use as a gristmill for his farm.

Other mills included:

• Thomas Townsend, South Seaville, built in 1885, sawmill
• John K. Carroll, Dennisville, 1898, used to grind feed and cut wood.
• Leonard Cummings, Fishing Creek, grist mill
• James Johnson, Rio Grande
• Jerry Hays, Green Creek
• Lemuel Ewing, West Cape May, grist windmill
• Willis Wheaton, sawmill, Cedar Swamp

(Information from “Catch the Wind” by Landt Dennis and “Windmills: The Ugly Ducklings of Cape May County” by Roland Ellis)

From Douglas Morrell Cook:

The Jesse with the paintings from PA. do not match the local First Baptist Cape May Courthouse Jesse. The Lower Township Jesse and his wife were members of the 1st Baptist Church, Cape May Court House. By trade Jesse built and a wind powered saw mill on (west) Springer Mill Road, Middle Township. He filed one of the first US patents for his wind mill. He build more Wind mills all over Cape May County for his clients. I can't find for sure where Jesse and Anne graves are.

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Feb 25 2023, 18:41:43 UTC
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Feb 27 2023, 14:02:37 UTC