| 4. | John Sparks was born in 1755 in Maryland or North Carolina (son of Matthew Jefferson Sparks, Sr. and Sarah Thompson); died in Feb 1831; was buried in Sparks Family Cem, Russellville, Franklin Co, Alabama. Other Events and Attributes:
- Military: American Revolution, Surry Co, North Carolina
Notes:
from THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, March 1966, No. 53, pp 960-68::
"JOHN SPARKS (SON OF MATTHEW & SARAH [THOMPSON] SPARKS) BORN 1755, DIED 1831"
"John Sparks, son of Matthew and Sarah Sparks, was born in 1755 and died in February 1831. (These dates are found on his tombstone in the Sparks Family Cemetery several miles west of Russellville, Franklin County, Alabama]. He was a child of about four or five years when his parents moved from Maryland to Rowan County, North Carolina.
"The earliest official document which we have found containing John Sparks' name is the 1775 tax list of Surry County, North Carolina . His father had moved from Rowan County to an area called New River in Surry County, North Carolina, shortly before the tax list for 1775 was drawn up. This area was included in Benjamin Cleveland's District for tax purposes, and opposite the name of "Matthew Sparks, Sr. " on this 1775 list are given three "taxable polls": the father himself, and his two eldest sons, "John Sparks" and "Matthew Sparks, Jr."
"In 1777, a new county called Wilkes was created from a portion of Surry County and the District of Washington. The area in which Matthew Sparks's family had settled, called New River, was now included in the new Wilkes County. (In 1799, Wilkes County was divided and this section was included in the new Ashe County. It is still a part of Ashe County today and is near the present site of the town of Jefferson.)
"John Sparks had just come of age when the American Revolution began. Thus far, we have found no official document to prove that he served [JS:see below], but in the application for a pension made by his brother, William Sparks, there is a reference to such service. William Sparks, who was six years younger than John, swore on September 14, 1846, that about 1778 he, William Sparks, "was organized into a company of mounted minute men under Andrew Baker, as Captain, and my Brother John Sparks as Lieutenant." (See the March and June 1954, issues of the QUARTERLY for a transcription of William Sparks' pension application.
"Our next record of John Sparks is his marriage bond recorded in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and dated August 14, 1781. His bondsman was James Bunyard and the girl whom his bond authorized him to marry was Mary Parmely. They were probably married a day or two after the bond was issued. Mary Parmely, who was often called by her nickname, "Mollie", was a daughter of Giles Parmely. According to the inscription on her tombstone, she was born in 1763. Her father, Giles Parmely, was born July 1, 1731, in Killingsworth, Middlesex County, Connecticut, but he was living in Essex County, New Jersey, when Mary was born. He was in Wilkes County, North Carolina, as early as 1777.
"The 1782 tax list of Wilkes County survives and, while John Sparks owned no land in 1782 according to this record, he was taxed on two horses and five cattle. He was probably working for his father at this time. Matthew Sparks, Sr., was taxed in the same district that year on 650 acres.
"In 1786 the state of North Carolina ordered that a census be taken of all inhabitants. Fortunately, Wilkes County was one of the eighteen counties which complied (in 1787) and the family of John Sparks was listed near that of his father-in-law Giles Parmely. Living with John Sparks were " 3 males aged under 21 and over 60, and 2 females of every age." In all probability, these three males were his children--the reason for the census taker giving them in this age category was that males between 21 and 60 were required to pay the poll tax. One of the females would have been Mollie, John's wife, while the other was probably a daughter. Living in the same district was John's brother, William Sparks, who had married by 1787. There was also another John Sparks, who was a son of Solomon Sparks. It is believed that these two John Sparkses were first cousins. [Note by James Sparks: If this other John (359) was the son of Solomon Sparks (356) who lived in the Forks of the Yadkin, the two Johns were actually 2nd cousins once removed.)
"Matthew Sparks, Sr., and most of his family moved from Wilkes County, North Carolina, to what is now Clarke County, Georgia, in the early1780's. Only John and William were still in North Carolina in 1786, and by 1790, William also had left to join his father. John Sparks was listed on the 1790 census of Wilkes County; besides himself his househould in 1790 consisted of 4 males under 16 years and a total of 3 females (one of whom was his wife). His [second] cousin [once removed], the other John Sparks, had exactly the same size family. (For a record of this other John Sparks, who was born in 1753, see the QUARTERLY for December, 1955, Whole No. 4, pp 94-106.)
"By the fall of 1791, John Sparks and his family had followed his father and brothers to Georgia. It was in Georgia that John's son, Enoch Sparks, was born in September 1791. By 1794, however, John had moved to the Greenville District, South Carolina (later called Greenville County), where on February 17, 1794, he purchased from John Stiles of Oglethorpe County, Georgia, two tracts of land, one of 380 acres and the other of 240 acres, on "Beaverdam Creek, a branch of Tygar River." (Deed Book C, pp. 432-33.) He paid a total of 210 pounds for this land.
"John Sparks probably moved to South Carolina with his brother, Matthew Sparks, Jr., (Matthew and his wife, Margaret, witnessed the deeds by which John purchased his land in Greenville District.) In his pension application, Matthew Sparks, Jr., stated that after his father was killed in Georgia in 1793 [by Indians], he "removed to Greenville District in the State of South Carolina, where he resided seven or eight years..." (Seethe QUARTERLY of December, 1956, Whole No. 4, p. 179.) About the year 1800, Matthew Sparks, Jr., moved from South Carolina to Jackson County, Georgia, but John Sparks remained in South Carolina.
"A number of deeds for land purchased and sold by John Sparks are on record in Greenville District (now County), South Carolina, the last being dated 1828. He was listed on the census records of the county from 1800 through 1830; in 1830 he was listed as "John Sparks, Esqr." aged between 70 and 80.
"Shortly after the 1830 census was taken, John Sparks and his wife, Mary (or Mollie), moved from South Carolina to Franklin County, Alabama, to live with their son, William Sparks, who had gone to Franklin County in 1820. Shortly after moving to Alabama, John Sparks died, in February 1831. His wife lived until September 1853. Both are buried in the Sparks Family Cemetary, located several miles west of Russellville. One tombstone marks their graves; on one side the inscription reads "John Sparks, Sr. Born A.D. 1755, Died Feb. 1831;" on the other side the inscription reads "Mollie, wife of John Sparks, Sr. Born A.D. 1763, Died Sep. 1853." (See p. 962 for photos of this tombstone.)
"According to a record of the family of John and Mary (or Mollie) Sparks, prepared by their great-grandson, Christopher C. Sparks (1846-1923), they were the parents of the following children: (1)William, (2) Robert , (3) Samuel, (4) Enoch, (5) Rebecca, and (6) Elizabeth. The fact that John was called Sr. on his tombstone may indicate he had a son named John, but this may have been to distinguish him from his grandson, John Sparks, who was born in 1811 and died in 1847."
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See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY of December 1997, Whole No. 180, p 4965 for that part of an article entitled SPARKSES WHO SERVED IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION which states:
John Sparks (ca. 1755-1831) [spouse] Mary Parmely [service] Pvt.Capt. Andrew Baker's Co of Minute Men Surry County, NC. Source: Sons of the Amer. Rev. Dau. of the Amer. Rev. SQ p 537 and 960.
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See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, December 2001, Whole No. 196, pp 5605-5630, at p. 5607:
"John Sparks, eldest child of Matthew and Sarah Sparks, was born in 1755 and died in February 1831, according to the dates on his gravestone still standing in the Sparks Cemetery a few miles west of Russellville, Franklin County, Alabama. The Wilkes County, North Carolina, marriage bond for him to be wed to Mary Parmely (1763-1853) was dated August 14, 1781. Often callled "Mollie," Mary Parmely was a daughter of Giles Parmely. A record of the lives of John and Mary (Parmely) Sparks, with the identification of their six children, appeared in the QUARTERLY of March 1966, Whole No. 53, pp.960-968. In that article of 1966, we speculated that John had been born in Maryland before his parents moved to North Carolina. Based on later research, we now believe that his father, Matthew Sparks, had moved to North Carolina in 1754. While we cannot be certain whether Matthew and Sarah were married in Maryland or North Carolina, there can be little doubt that John was born in what was then Rowan County, North Carolina. John Sparks, son of Matthew and Sarah Sparks, should not be confused with the John Sparks (1753-1840), son of Solomon and Sarah, about whom we published an article in the QUARTERLY of December 1955, Whole No. 12."
posted to Ancestry.com by tamara-maddan added this on 20 Apr 2010
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John was born in Maryland and married Margaret Hampton in 1779. Margaret died soon after their marriage. John married again to Mary Polly Parmely in 1781. Mary was born in New Jersey and they were married in North Carolina. After their marriage, they moved to Alabama. They had seven children. John fought in the Revolutionary War and served some of the time in the the same unit as his brother William. John and his brother William both applied for Revolutionary War Pensions, but were rejected because they had lost their papers and no other formal records could ber found. Many witnesses spoke for them and wrote letters to the Pension Committee, but their applications were still rejected. John and Mary are buried at Franklin, Alabama. John Sparks (1755-1831) had a grandson named John Sparks (1843-1908). John, the grandson, moved to Texas, was a Texas Ranger, later built a large ranch in Nevada and became governor of Nevada. A grandson of Matthew Sparks (1730-1793) and a nephew of John Sparks (1755-1831) moved to Texas and later wrote "Recollections of S. F. Sparks". In his recollections, he talks about life in Texas before, during, and after the Texas War of Independence. (These recollections are on the internet.)
posted to Ancestry.com by tamara-maddanadded this on 10 Mar 2010
Military:
See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY of December 1997, Whole No. 180, p 4965 for that part of an article entitled SPARKSES WHO SERVED IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION which states:
John Sparks (ca. 1755-1831) [spouse] Mary Parmely [service] Pvt.Capt. Andrew Baker's Co of Minute Men Surry County, NC. Source: Sons of the Amer. Rev. Dau. of the Amer. Rev. SQ p 537 and 960.
Buried:
Both are buried in the Sparks Family Cemetary, located several miles west of Russellville. One tombstone marks their graves; on one side the inscription reads "John Sparks, Sr. Born A.D. 1755, Died Feb. 1831;" on the other side the inscription reads "Mollie, wife of John Sparks, Sr. Born A.D. 1763, Died Sep. 1853." (See p. 962 for photos of this tombstone.)
John married Mary "Mollie" Parmelee on 14 Aug 1781 in Wilkes Co, North Carolina. Mary (daughter of Giles Parmelee, Sr and Margaret Frazee) was born in 1763 in Essex Co, New Jersey; died in Sep 1853 in Russellville, Franklin Co, Alabama; was buried in Sparks Family Cem, Russellville, Franklin Co, Alabama. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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1817 - 1879 (62 years)