Rebecca Ruter Springer

Who was Rebecca Ruter Springer?

Rebecca Ruter Springer was a 19th-century American author who wrote the famous Christian book Intra Muros, better known today as My Dream of Heaven. As the modern name implies, Springer claimed to have a vision of a Christian heaven, and she recounts this vision in her book as well as some personal insights. My Dream of Heaven is considered by many to be a deeply inspirational book.

Rebecca Ruter was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 8, 1832, the daughter of Calvin W. Ruter, a Methodist clergyman in Indiana. She attended Wesleyan Female College and graduated at the age of 18. She married William McKendree Springer on December 15, 1859, later a lawyer and member of the Illinois General Assembly. William Ruter Springer, the couple's only child, was born a few years later, and went on to graduate from a private military academy in Virginia in 1880. Springer and her husband left for a two-year European tour in 1868 to improve her health, which at the time had been described as "feeble"; a condition which persisted until her death in 1904.