Springdale, Iowa

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}

{{Infobox settlement

|official_name = Springdale, Iowa

|settlement_type = Unincorporated community

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|image_skyline = Springdale iowa church.jpg

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|image_caption = Methodist Church, Springdale

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|pushpin_map=Iowa

|subdivision_type = Country

|subdivision_name = United States

|subdivision_type1 = State

|subdivision_name1 = Iowa

|subdivision_type2 = County

|subdivision_name2 = Cedar

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|timezone = Central (CST)

|utc_offset = -6

|timezone_DST = CDT

|utc_offset_DST = -5

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|elevation_m =

|elevation_ft = 781

|coordinates = {{coord|41|40|14|N|91|15|33|W|type:city_region:US-IA_source:GNIS-enwiki|display=inline,title}}

|postal_code_type =

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|area_code = 319

|blank_name = GNIS feature ID

|blank_info = 461914{{cite gnis|461914|Springdale}}

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Image:The Maxson House, near Springdale - History of Iowa.jpg accomplices lived and trained, 1857–1859.]]

Springdale is a small unincorporated community in Cedar County, Iowa, United States. Historically, the town was predominantly settled by Quakers, and was one of Iowa's most important stations on the Underground Railroad.

Starting in 1857, Springdale was the western base of operations for the militant abolitionist John Brown, who lived in John Hunt Painter's house while training the 10 men who came with him in preparation for his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The 10 were his son Owen Brown, John Kagi, Aaron D. Stevens, John E. Cook, Richard Realf, Charles W. Moffitt, Luke J. Parsons, Charles H. Tidd, William Leeman, and Richard Richardson.{{cite journal

|title=John Brown among the Pedee Quakers. Chapter II

|first=Frederick

|last=Lloyd

|pages=712–719, at p. 712

|date=July 1866

|journal=Annals of Iowa

|volume=4

|issue=3

|doi=10.17077/0003-4827.11521

|doi-access=free

|via=Ebscohost

|url=https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/annals-of-iowa/article/id/12227/}} In 1858 they departed east. In February 1859 Brown appeared with 12 enslaved men and women from Missouri.{{cite book

|last=Jones

|first=Louis Thomas

|year=1914

|title=The Quakers of Iowa

|location=Iowa City

|url=https://archive.org/details/quakersiowa00jonegoog/page/n200/mode/2up?q=%22John+brown%22&view=theater

|publisher=State Historical Society of Iowa}}{{rp|192–193}}

In July, 1859, two local boys, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc, joined Brown in his raid.{{rp|194}} The first was captured, tried, and executed; Barclay escaped and died later serving in the Union army.{{cite journal

|title=John Brown and His Followers in Iowa

|journal=Midland Monthly Magazine

|year=1894

|first=Ransom Langland

|last=Harris

|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_midland-monthly-magazine_1894-10_2_4/page/262/mode/1up

|volume=1

|pages=262–267}}

Springdale was also the home of Lawrie Tatum, a farmer who served as a frontier Indian agent and the legal guardian of future President Herbert Hoover. The main street through the town is the Herbert Hoover Highway.{{cite journal

|title=John Brown: They Had a Concern

|first=Jeannette Mather

|last=Lord

|volume=20

|number=3

|date=April 1959

|pages=163–183

|url=https://archive.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh20-2.html

|journal=West Virginia History

|access-date=2022-05-28

|archive-date=2022-05-28

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528135342/https://archive.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh20-2.html

|url-status=live

}}

No downtown business district remains in Springdale; it is a cluster of houses with a United Methodist church. William Maxson's home, where Brown's men were quartered, was razed in 1938, but its location is marked by a plaque provided by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Although often described as Quaker, Maxson was raised in the faith but at the time of Brown's visit considered himself a follower of spiritualism.