LeMars Globe-Post, (LeMars, Iowa)
Thursday, July 9, 1959

The members of the Methodist church sponsored a Family Dinner at the church Social rooms Sunday to give everyone an opportunity to meet the new pastor and his wife, Reverend and Mrs. Fritz Springis, who will have the Ireton charge and the Seney church.  They will live in the parsonage at Seney.

Reverend and Mrs. Springis are refugees from Latvia.  In telling of their experiences before coming to United States, Mr. Springis says “Latvia was occupied by the Russian Communists and we were sentenced to forced labor.  During the war we managed to escape to Germany, and after the war sponsored by the Methodist church, we came to the United States and now we are American citizens.”

Mr. Springis is a graduate of the Theological faculty of the University of Riga of Latvia.  He served pastorates in his native country and they have been here the past ten years. They are parents of two grown children.  They lost three children in the European conflict.  They have been serving a church near Waterloo and are moving to the Methodist parsonage at Seney this week.
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LeMars Globe-Post, Monday, September 7, 1959

FORMER SLAVE LABORER TO SPEAK
Rev. Fritz Springis of Seney, who is a native of Latvia, will speak to the Brotherhood of St. John’s American Lutheran Church, Preston township near Akron, according to the Rev. H. Dirks. He will speak on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 8 p.m.

The Rev. Springis was a slave-laborer in a Russian prison camp, but he was fortunate to escape the clutches of the communists.
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Argus-Leader, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Tuesday, September 29, 1959

Refugee Given Assignment to Ireton (IA) Church
Ireton, Ia.—A Latvian minister, who spent three years in a German refugee camp, has been assigned to the Methodist parishes of Ireton and Seney (IA).

The Rev. Fritz Springis and his wife came to the country in 1951 from Germany.  He fled from Communist occupied Latvia in 1947.

Educated in Russian schools, the Rev. Mr. Springis attended the University of Riga Theological School.  Following his graduation, he taught religion in public schools.

He was arrested in 1942 and placed in a war camp.

In 1945 one of their sons was killed by the Communists.  Their other two children are now living in the United States -- a son in Blue Earth, Minn., and a daughter, in Humboldt, Ia., where the Rev. Mr. Springis served as assistant pastor and then pastor.