| Notes |
See SQ p. 393: ABEL SPARKS, son of George and Delila Sparks, was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, about 1828. He married Elizabeth Douglass in Wells County, Indiana, on May 4, 1850.
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The following article was taken from the March, 1977, issue of the QUARTERLY, Whole No. 97, p 1890:
"In the June 1959 issue of the QUARTERLY (Vol. VII, No. 2, Whole No. 26), we devoted several pages to the history of the descendants of Solomon Sparks, Jr. (died 1817) and his wife, Charity, of Wilkes County, North Carolina. A son of Solomon Sparks, Jr., was George Sparks (born ca. 1788) who married Delila - - - - about 1806 and moved to Randolph County, Indiana, about 1830. He moved to Wells County, Indiana, about 1836 and died there in 1843.
One of the sons of George and Delila Sparks was Abel Sparks who was born in Wilkes County, North
Carolina, about 1828; he married Elizabeth Douglass in Wells County, Indiana, on May 4, 1850. This is the only information that we had regarding Abel Sparks when the above mentioned article appeared. Mrs. Bertha J. Davis, 1700 Harrison Blvd., Boise, Idaho (83702) has learned a little more about him, but hopes that someone reading this may be able to report even further.
When the 1850 census was taken of Huntington County Indiana, the family of Abel Sparks was listed as
consisting of himself (aged 22, and his wife, Elizabeth, aged 19. Elizabeth's birth place was given as
Pennsylvania. Abel's mother, Delila Sparks (aged 62, born in North Carolina), was living with him, as was his sister, Mary Sparks (aged 16, born in Indiana).
According to family records found by Mrs. Davis, Abel and Elizabeth (Douglass) Sparks had a daughter, Mary Sparks, who was born on April 16, 1851, in Bluffton, Wells County, Indiana. It is not known whether there were other children.
Sometime in the 1850's, after the birth of Mary, Abel Sparks, with his wife and daughter, joined a wagon train going to Oregon. Abel Sparks died enroute - - where or when is not known. It is known that his wife married again, but it is not known to whom or when.
On May 12, 1869, Mary Sparks, daughter of Abel and Elizabeth (Douglass) Sparks, was married to John
Joseph Brown, son of Charles Arthur Brown. Their first two children, names and dates unknown, were born in Cottage Grove, Lane County, Oregon. Mary and John later moved to Gilliam County, Oregon, where a son, Charles Arthur Brown, was born on March 11, 1876, in Rock Creek. Charles Arthur Brown was married on December 1, 1901, in Condon, Gilliam County, Oregon, to Missouri Pearl Fitzwater.
Mary (Sparks) Brown died in Condon, Gilliam County, Oregon, on August 29, 1931. Her son, Charles Arthur Brown, died on September 12, 1960, in Pleasant Valley, Baker County, Oregon, and his wife, Missouri Pearl (Fitzwater) Brown, died on February 9, 1969, in Oak Harbor, Island County, Washington."
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Also see SQ p. 3706.
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See SQ p. 5289:
Abel Sparks was born in May 1827. He was married to Elizabeth Douglas on May 4, 1850, in Wells
County, Indiana. A great-granddaughter of Abel Sparks (Doris Cornett [Brown[ Macomber), reported
many years ago that early in 1852 Abel Sparks and his wife, Elizabeth, with their infant daughter, Mary
Sparks, joined a wagon train to Oregon. Most of Elizabeth's family, including her parents, were members
of this train. Abel Sparks died of cholera somewhere along the Platte River on June 13, 1852. Elizabeth
and her daughter continued with the train and settled with her relatives in Lane County, Oregon. There, on
May 23, 1854, she was married (2nd) to James Richard Phillips.
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Note H01500 Index
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[JS NOTE: See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, December 1958, Whole No. 24, pp. 337-337 for the following article which was later corrected in the June 1987 issue of the QUARTERLY at pp. 3061-3084, reproduced below. This Abel Sparks, said in the following article to be the son of Solomon and (Sarah -----] Sparks, was actually their grandson and the son of Joseph Sparks.]
DEATH TAKES GEORGE WILLIAM WAGNER
GREAT-GRANDSON OF ABEL SPARKS
"It is with deep regret that we report the death of George William Wagner, a devoted member of The Sparks Family Association since 1955. Mr. Wagner died of a heart attack at his home in Conrad, Montana, on August 31, 1958. He was eighty-three years old at the time of his death.
Born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, on September 18, 1874, Mr. Wagner moved with his parents to a farm near Blue Earth, Minnesota, where he attended school. They later farmed near Guckeen, Minnesota. He married Minnie Gertrude Brownlee, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Gordon) Brownlee, in December, 1902, and he and his wife came to Montana in 1910, homesteading twenty-eight miles east of Conrad. He lived there until he retired in 1942. Mrs. Wagner died in 1956. He is survived by four daughters: Mrs. George (Gertrude) Kovatch of Kellogg, Idaho; Mrs. Olive Harris of Conrad; Mrs. A. J. (Marian) Kovatch of Conrad; and Mrs. Mae Bales of Tillamook, Oregon.
Mr. Wagner was connected with the Sparks family through his paternal grandmother, Mary (Sparks) Wagner, daughter of Abel and Sarah Sparks. Abel Sparks, Mr. Wagner?s great-grandfather, was the son of Solomon and Sarah Sparks of Surry County, North Carolina [Note: later found incorrect; see top of page]. (See page 98 of the December, 1955, issue of The Sparks Quarterly, Whole No. 12.)
Mr. Wagner owned the family Bible in which was recorded the birth of Abel Sparks, along with that of his wife and children. Following is a transcription of this record:
Abel Sparks was born Jan. 8th, 1767
Sarah Sparks was born May, 1767
Children:
Geo. Sparks, born Oct. 14th, 1800
Hannah Sparks, born May 9th, 1802
Frances Sparkes, born Oct. 27th, 1803
Elizabeth Sparkes, born April 13th, 1805
Ann Sparkes, born June 7th, 1808
Martha Sparkes, born April 1st, 1811
Soloman Sparkes, born Sept. 5th, 1812
John Sparkes, born March 25th, 1814
Mary Sparks, born October 25th, 1815
Sarah Sparks, born Sept. 13th, 1817
Abraham Sparks, born July 27th, 1821
Rebecca Sparkes, born Dec. 27th, 1825
Jane Sparks, born July 19th, 1827
Relatively little has been learned regarding the life of Abel Sparks. He may have been married twice, for on the 1800 census of Wilkes County, North Carolina, he was listed with five children, two boys and three girls, all under ten years of age. Since the Bible record gives no children born before 1800, it would seem probable that they were children by an earlier wife. It is possible, of course, that these five children were not his own and were merely living in his household when the 1800 census was taken. Another problem exists regarding the birth date of Sarah, wife of Abel. If she was born in 1767, as the Bible record indicates, she would have been thirty-three years of age when her first child, George, was born in 1800, and sixty years old when her daughter, Jane, was born in 1827. Although it is not impossible for a woman of sixty to bear a child, it is very unusual - - so unusual that, if she was the mother of all the children named, she must have been born several years after 1767.
Several records have been found in Wilkes County, North Carolina, pertaining to Abel Sparks. The earliest of these is a tax record dated 1800 on which he was taxed for 60 acres of land. A letter of attorney dated July 31, 1801, to Abel Sparks from his brotiers and sisters is also on file in Wilkes County; this appears to have involved the settlement of the estate of Abel?s father. Although it is evident that Abel Sparks owned land in Wilkes County by 1800, the only deed pertaining to his purchase of land is dated December 12, 1801. It records the purchase by Abel Sparks from Humphrey Cockerham, both of Wilkes County, for 100 pounds, a tract of 150 acres described as follows: ?a certain tract or parcel of land lying and being in the County of Wilkes beginning on the East fork of Swan Creke on Timothy Sisks line, running with the sd line South to a stake in James Foxes line, then East running with sd line to a white oak on the County ithe, thence North with the County to the Long Glade Creek, thence running down sd crick with the various courses of the stream to the beginning.? The witnesses to this deed were Mordecoi Samuel and James Dowell; it was recorded in the Wilkes County courthouse in February, 1805.
In 1805, Abel Sparks was taxed for 100 acres of land in Wilkes County. The last record pertaining to him in the county states that he was chosen to serve on a jury on August 5, 1807.
By 1812 Abel Sparks had moved to Tennessee, but in what section he settled is not known. Sometime between 1815 and 1820 he moved to Illinois, settling in Bond County, for he and his family were listed on the 1820 census of that county as follows:
Abel Sparks
1 male over 21 years
3 males under 21 years
7 free white females
No record has been found thus far to reveal when or where Abel and Sarah Sparks died. Some members of the family moved to Grant, Wisconsin, in later years. A marrlage is recorded in Bond County, Illinois, for one of Abel Sparks? children: on October 10, 1822, Fanny (Frances) Sparks married Francis Kirkpatrick. Of the other children, it is known that Elizabeth married a Jones, Sarah married William Dennis, and Rebecca married William Andrews.
Mary Sparks, daughter of Abel, was Mr. Wagner?s grandmother. She was born while her parents were living in Tennessee, and died on May 10, 1879, in Hampton, Franklin County, Iowa. She was married twice, her first husband being Jacob Wagner, who was born in Palatine, New York, August 24, 1807. He was a farmer living in Grant County, Wisconsin, when, about 1844, he was killed by a neighbor who struck him on the head with a fence post. It was winter and there was lots of snow; Jacob Wagner had taken down this man?s fence in order to take a shortcut home. The children of Jacob and Mary (Sparks) Wagner were as follows:
(1) Elizabeth Wagner, born Jan. 22, 1832, died Mar. 17, 1923; married Samuel Wanamaker.
(2) George Wagner, born May 1, 1833, died Mar. 9, 1863; never married.
(3) Sarah Jane Wagner, born May 22, 1834; married Jake Wire.
(4) Jesse William Wagner, born June 28, 1835; died June 1, 1922; never married.
(5) Emdine Catherine Wagner, born Jan. 9, 1837, died Feb. 1, 1929; married Scott Vincent.
(6) Solomon Wagner, born Aug. 20, 1838, died Jan. 20, 1924; he was married five times. His first wife?s maiden name was Sullivan; he married 2nd Mrs. Pricella Ice Ward. Solomon is buried at Stockton, California.
(7) Jasper Newton Wagner, born Nov. 4, 1839; never married; he was lost in a storm on a wagon train going West.
(8) Jacob Harrison Wagner, born Feb. 28, 1841; died Feb. 25, 1929; married Margaret Eirning.
Mary (Sparks] Wagner married, as her second husband, Joseph Brown who was born about 1810 and died about 1860. He was a Quaker, born in Pennsylvania, but lived in Grant
County, Wisconsin. They had the following children:
(1) Apame Ann Brown, born March 25, 1845; died May, 1909; married Bentley Wheeler.
(2) Minerva Brown, born Nov. 14, 1846; died June, 1921; married Charles Humphrey.
(3) John Brown, born July 23, 1848; died Aug. 24, 1920; married Mary Ann Gullickson.
[4) Dave Brown, born Aug. 20, 1850; died Feb., 1914; married Evelyn Medley.
(5) Marques De Lafayette (Mark) Brown, born June 14, 1852; died Dec. 26, 1899; married Agnes Nowell.
(6) Pheobe Brown, born July 9, 1854; died June 4, 1855.
(7) Mary Idell Brown, born Feb. 21, 1858; died Dec. 18, 1933; married Dr. John Pride.
The above information on Mary (Sparks) Wagner Brown has been supplied by Mr. Wagner?s daughter, Mrs. Olive M. W. Harris, who has been an active supporter of the Association for the past several years.
Should anyone have further information on Abel Sparks or his descendants, your editor would be very pleased to hear from him."
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See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, June 1987, pp. 3069-3084:
TWO MEN NAMED ABEL SPARKS
(continued:)
ABEL SPARKS, THE YOUNGER
SON OF JOSEPH SPARKS
"When the younger Abel Sparks died in 1872, his age, as given on his tombstone, was 94. When his wife, Sarah Sparks, died in 1853, her age was given as 74. If these ages at the times of their deaths are correct, Abel was born in 1778 (possibly 1777 or 1779) and Sarah, his wife, was born in 1779 (possibly 1778 or 1780). Census records confirm the near correctness of these dates.
As noted earlier in this article, we are quite certain that this Abel Sparks, whom we have called "the Younger" in order to distinguish him from his uncle, Abel Sparks, the Elder, was a son of Joseph Sparks, a biographical sketch of whom appears on pages 3057-60 of the present issue of the QUARTERLY. We believe this in part because the age of Abel Sparks, the Younger matches the age of a son of Joseph Sparks enumerated on the 1800 census of Surry County, North Carolina. No other man named Sparks living in Surry or Wilkes Counties of North Carolina had a son born in or about 1778 whom we cannot otherwise account for.
"Abel and Sarah Sparks were married in Surry or Wilkes County, North Carolina, about 1799. While we have found no record of their marriage, there can be little doubt but that Sarah?s maiden name was Cochran. Descendants have always believed that this was her name. (Cochran was spelled in a variety of ways in the Wilkes County records, including "Cockerham.") We believe that it is significant that on December 12, 1801, Abel Sparks purchased a tract of 150 acres of land in Wilkes County, North Carolina, from Humphrey Cochran. (Deed Book E, p. 703) While in this deed, Humphrey?s name was spelled "Cockerham," his name appears in some Wilkes County records as Cochran (also Cockran). A daughter of Abel and Sarah (Cochran) Sparks, Frances Sparks, who married Francis Creswell Kirkpatrick, named her first son James Cochran. Kirkpatrick. This may suggest that Sarah?s father was named James Cochran, though no one of that name has been found in Wilkes County records.
"In the QUARTERLY of December 1958 (Whole No. 24, p. 337) we published a record of the children of Abel and Sarah (Cochran) Sparks from a family Bible then owned by the family of George William Wagner (who died in 1955). George William Wagner descended from a daughter of Abel and Sarah named Mary. This record pertains to Abel Sparks, the Younger, although at the time (1958) that we published the record we did not realize that there were two different men named Abel Sparks living in the Surry-Wilkes Counties area in the 1790s and early 1800s. In transcribing this Bible record for the QUARTERLY from a hand-copied sheet sent by a member of the Wagner family, we noted that the dates of birth given for Abel and Sarah Sparks (both being 1767) seemed strange in relationship to the dates of birth of their thirteen children; if born in 1767, both Abel and Sarah would have been 33 years old when their first child was born in 1800, and both would have been 60 years old when their last child was born in 1827. Rarely, if ever, has a woman borne a child at the age of 60.
We assumed in the 1958 article that this was the same Abel Sparks known to have been a son of Solomon and Sarah, as noted earlier. Since that time, however, evidence has been found to prove that the birth date (1767) given for the younger Abel Sparks and his wife Sarah was wrong (see the records given above for their ages at their deaths appearing on their tombstones). Rather than being a son of Solomon and Sarah Sparks, Abel Sparks (whom we call "the Younger? here" was a grandson of Solomon and Sarah.
Since the publication of the 1958 article, we have obtained a photostatic copy of the family record in the Wagner Bible. From this it is clear that the names and dates of birth of Abel and Sarah Sparks, along with those of their thirteen children, were all written in the same hand and at the same time, that is, this record was copied from an earlier record. Perhaps it was taken from a family Bible once belonging to Abel Sparks, himself. What is especially interesting is the fact that the birth dates of Abel and Sarah were written orginally in the Wagner Bible as follows:
"Abel Sparkes was born january 8th Anno Domini 1789
Sarah Sparkes was born May 1th Anno Domini 1789."
"At a later date, in a different hand, the following was written in the Wagner Bible record above the entry for the birth of Abel Sparks: "corrected Born 1767" and above the entry for Sarah Sparkes was written simply "1767." Why was this correction made? We can speculate that someone, at some point, must have realized that if Abel and Sarah had been born in 1789, as originally written in the Wagner Bible, they would have been only 11 years old in 1800 when their first child was born. While the date "1789" was obviously wrong, subsequent events (e.g. their ages given on census records and their ages at death on their tombstones, as well as the fact that no woman could bear a child at age 60) prove that "1767" was likewise wrong.
"Where did the date "1767" come from? Since this seems to be very nearly the date of birth of the elder Abel Sparks (son of Solomon and Sarah), we wonder whether the person who made the change in the Wagner Bible record may have had access to the record of the births of the children of Solomon and Sarah Sparks and assumed, as did we in 1958, that there had been but one Abel Sparks.
"In our earlier discussion of the elder Abel Sparks, reference was made to the 1800 entry in the Wilkes County Court Minutes for an Abel Sparks being one of a group of men charged with laying out a road "from Brooks road at Surry County line into the road that leads down the Yadkin on the south side." While we cannot be certain, we think it probable that this referred to the younger Abel Sparks. (It is interesting that in this list of men charged with building this road, the name of Humphrey Cockerham (or Cochran) immediately precedes that of Abel Sparks.)
"It was on December 12, 1801, that Abel Spanks purchased from Humphrey Cockenham (or Cochran) a tract of land in Wilkes County consisting of 150 acres. (Book E, p. 703) Both Humphrey Cockerham and Abel Sparks were identified in the deed as residents of Wilkes County. Abel Sparks paid Cockerham "One Hundred Pounds Courantcy." The tract was described in the deed as follows:
"... lying and being in the County of Wilkes beginning on the East fork of Swan Creke on Timothy Sisks line running with the sd line South to a stake in James Foxes line then East running with sd line to a white oak on the County line thence North with the County to the Long Glade Creek thence running down sd crick with the various Courses of the stream to the beginning." The witnesses to this deed were Mordecoi Samuel and James Dowell. Though signed on December 12, 1801, this deed was not recorded in the Wilkes County Courthouse until February 1805.
"Unfortunately, no tax lists are available for Wilkes County between 1800 and 1805. Abel Sparks was taxed for 100 acres of land in Captain John Martin?s District in Wilkes County in 1805. Since the elder Abel Sparks had been in Georgia for at least two years when this tax list was prepared, we have no doubt that this refers to Abel Sparks, the Younger.
"While the Wagner Bible record quoted earlier regarding the family of Abel and Sarah (Cochran) Spanks was obviously in error regarding the dates of birth of both Abel and Sarah, the record of the births of their children seems to be accurate, according to descendants. This record reads as follows:
1. George Sparkes, born October 14, 1800
2. Hannah Sparkes, born May 9, 1802
3. Frances Sparkes, born Octobr 27, 1803
4. Elizabeth Sparkes, born April 13, 1805
5. Ann Sparkes, bonn June 7, 1808
6. Martha Sparkes, born April 1, 1811
7. Solomon Sparkes, born September 5, 1812
8. John Sparkes, born March 25, 1814
9. Mary Sparkes, born October 25, 1815
10. Sarah Spankes, born September 13, 1817
11. Abraham Sparkes, born July 27, 1821
12. Rebecca Sparkes, born December 27, 1825
13. Jane Sparkes, born July 19, 1827
"Our last record of Abel Sparks, the Younger that we have found in North Carolina is dated 1807. The Wilkes County court records indicate that Abel served on a jury there on August 5, 1807. He again served on a jury in Wilkes County on September 21, 1807. (See the Winter 1982 issue of the quarterly publication of the Wilkes Genealogical Society, Vol. 16, No. 4, p. 10.)
"Abel Sparks, the Younger moved with his family to Tennessee sometime after September 1807, where they remained until at least 1815. He was taxed in Franklin County, Tennessee, in 1812. (See Index to Early Tennessee Tax Records by Byron & Barbara Sistler, published in Evanston, IL in 1977.) By 1820, however, Abel Sparks had again moved his family, this time to the new state of Illinois, settling in Bond County according to the federal census of that year. Abel Sparks did not appear on the 1830 census of Illinois, however, because by that time he had taken his family to Crawford County, Missouri. In fact, the move to Missouri probably came no later than the summer of 1827 because Abel?s youngest daughter, Jane, who was born July 19, 1827, gave her place of birth in later years as Missouri.
"Abel Sparks, the Younger made one more major move in his lifetime -- sometime before 1840. In this instance, however, he may have simply accompanied a son in his attempt to better himself. Abel?s son John was living in Grant County, Wisconsin Territory, when the 1840 census was taken, while his son George was in Iowa County of Wisconsin Territory. From the enumeration of the household of George Sparks on the 1840 census, it appears that his parents were then living with him.
"When the 1850 census was taken of Grant County, Wisconsin, Abel and Sarah Sparks were listed (on November 2, 1850) as living with their son Solomon Sparks, near the town of Lima. (The 1850 federal census was the first to list each member of each household by name.) Solomon Sparks, son of Abel and Sarah, was identified as a farmer, 40 years old, with real estate valued at $1,200. His place of birth was given as Tennessee. Abel and Sarah, both shown as born in North Carolina, were listed as 70 years of age. Also listed in the same household of Solomon Sparks (who never married) was 23-year old Lucinda Sparks (thus born about 1827) whose place of birth was given as Missouri. We believe that this was intended for Jane Sparks (born July 19, 1827), the youngest daughter of Abel and Sarah Sparks--perhaps her middle name was Lucinda, or the census taker may simply have misunderstood her name. Also living in the household of Solomon Sparks were three males who were probably hired men or boarders. They were: William Wagner, age 15, laborer; Jesse Crow, age 27, miner; and Jasper Wilkerl, age 20, laborer. (JS Note: See SQ p. 2608 for this census.)
"In 1853, Sarah (Cochran) Sparks, wife of Abel, died. She was buried in Grant County, Wisconsin, about one mile south of the hamlet called Arthur. Located on land owned by a McReynolds family today, the cemetery is called the McReynolds Cemetery. (Two daughters of Abel and Sarah Sparks married men named McReynolds, Nancy and Jane.) The inscription on Sarah?s tombstone reads:"Sarah, wife of Abel Sparks, Died August 12, 1853, Aged 74 years."
"When the 1860 census was taken, Abel Sparks, 82 years old, was again listed by the census taker as living with his bachelor son, Solomon Sparks, in Grant County, Wisconsin. The census taker, however, mistakenly wrote his name as "Abraham"; in the column for occupation, he wrote "Gentleman." In 1870, Abel Sparks was again listed by the census taker as living with his son Solomon; he was now 92, and under occupation this time the census taker wrote "keeping house."
"According to the inscription on his tombstone in the Mc Reynolds Cemetery, Abel Sparks died on December 27, 1872, at the age of 94. He was buried beside his wife, Sarah.
"When Solomon Sparks, son of Abel and Sarah (Cochran) Sparks, died in 1880 without issue and without leaving a will, his brother, Abraham Sparks, requested the county probate judge to appoint Thomas Watson as administrator of the estate. A man named George Clementson was directed to identify the heirs of Solomon Sparks. His report contains helpful data regarding the descendants of Abel and Sarah, as will be noted below." (For balance of article see notes for each child.)
http://www.sparksfamilytree.net/ghtout/npr248.html#H01500
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