January 22, 2022
Pages 2759-2760
Whole Number 130
QUERY: SARAH (SPARKS) ARNOLD (1799-1884)
Mildred Maddus (Mrs. William D.) of Palestine, Texas (75801), a new member of the Association, is seeking information regarding her great-great-grandmother, SARAH SPARKS, who was born February 1, 1799, in North Carolina. Her nickname was Sally. She was married ca. 1819 to Moses Arnold, son of Zachariah and Charlotte (Tarver) Arnold. Moses Arnold was born May 24, 1800, in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, and died on May 17, 1874, in Lincoln County, Tennessee. Sarah (Sparks) Arnold died on July 30, 1884, in Lincoln County, Tennessee. Both were buried in the Arnold Cemetery #2 Huntland Quad near Smithland, Tennessee. Moses owned land in the vicinity of Georges Store and Sheltons Creek in Lincoln County where they are believed to have lived throughout their married life. They were the parents of the following children:
1. Acquilla ["Quilla"] Arnold, born November 19, 1820; he married Elmira Langston.
2. James M. Arnold, born ca. 1822; he married Elizabeth Walker.
3. Mary ["Polly" or "Pop"] Arnold, born ca. 1823; she married Isham J. Walker.
4. Zachariah J. ["Zack"] Arnold, born ca. 1824; he married Sarah Catherine Hunt.
5. Malissa Arnold, born ca. 1826; she married (first) Oliver Deal Tankersley, divorced; and (second) Levi Michael.
6. William L. Arnold, born ca. 1828; he married Julia Boatright.
7. Sarah Ann Arnold, born ca. 1830; she married Wilson Brown Taylor.
8. John C. Arnold, born ca. 1831; he married Martha Jane Taylor.
9. David C. Arnold, born ca. 1833.
10. Thomas Porter Arnold, born July 20, 1835; he married (first) Maria Stanley; (second) Mandana Stubblefield; and (third) Winnie Foster
11. Charlotte J. Arnold, born ca. 1837; she married John W. Cashion.
12. Martha Arnold, born ca. 1839; she married (first) Willis White who was killed in the Civil War; and (second) George W. Arnold.
[Editor's Note: Circumstantial evidence suggests that Sarah ["Sally"] Sparks, born February 1, 1799, the subject of this query, may have been a daughter of David and Mary (Little) Sparks. David Sparks was a son of Jonas Sparks (died 1805) of Rowan County, North Carolina. [See the Quarterly of March 1964, Whole No. 45, for an article entitled "Jonas Sparks (died 1805) of Rowan County, North Carolina, and His Descendants."]` David Sparks married Mary Little, daughter of Captain Daniel Little and his wife Mary MNU. After the death of Daniel Little in 1775, his widow, Mary, married as her second husband Jacob Eakle, who then died and in 1786 she married her third husband, Jonas Sparks, father of David by his first wife, Elizabeth MNU. David Sparks thus married his step-mother's daughter.
David and Mary (Little) Sparks were the parents of twelve children. [See pages 803-07 in the Quarterly cited above for a record of these children.]
It is known that among the twelve children of David and Mary (Little) Sparks there was a daughter named Sarah who was called Sally. David Sparks, accompanied by his wife and all except the two oldest children, moved from Rowan County, North Carolina, to Tennessee after selling his land in Rowan County in 1815. When the 1820 census was taken, he was living with his family in Lincoln County, Tennessee, the same county where Sally Sparks and her husband, Moses Arnold, spent most, if not all,of their married life. (by 1830, David Sparks was living in Madison County, Tennessee, and by 1840 he was in Hardeman County, where he was still living in 1850, aged 82 years.]
Does any reader have information that would either prove or disprove the editor's conclusion that Sarah (Sparks) Arnold was a daughter of David and Mary (Little) Sparks?)