September 25, 2023
Pages 3327
Whole Number 144
QUERY - RUFUS SPARKS (OF TENNESSEE)
and SON - CHARLES GARFIELD SPARKS (1901-1956)
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| (L-R) James Milton Sparks, with his brother Bill's wife and Col. George Sparks, with wife Irene |
Nellie Drake of Frametown, West Virginia (Box 372, Zip #26623) is seeking information regarding the family of her father, Charles Garfield Sparks, whose parents were Rufus and Deliha (Hill) Sparks. Charles Garfield Sparks was born in Tennessee on July 21, 1901, and died on May 7, 1956. He was a coal miner by occupation. Mrs. Drake is not sure of his place of birth in the state of Tennessee. She recalls that it might have been in a town called Vasper or Jasper, perhaps in Campbell County. (We have found a town called Jasper in Marion County, Tennessee, but no town with a similar name in Campbell County.)
Mrs. Drake believes that her father had the following brothers and a sister:
(1) James [or Harlen ? ] Milton Sparks, a boxer;
(2) [ ? ] Bill Sparks;
(3) George Sparks who married Irene MNU and was a colonel in the U.S. Army stationed in Hawaii; and
(4) Oma Sparks, born in Tennessee on October 24, 1899, who married Colson Jones; he is deceased. Oma lives with her daughter Rosalie Rollyson (P.O. Box 445, Philippi, West Virginia, 26416). She is quite feeble and cannot recall any family history beyond what is given here. Nothing is known of Rufus and Deliha (Hill) Sparks other than their names.
The photograph reproduced above was given to Mrs. Drake by her father when she was a little girl. Her father wrote on the back of the picture that the man on the left was James Milton [Sparks] "with Bill's wife;" the man in uniform was identified as George Sparks, with his wife, Irene. Mrs. Drake writes that she "would love to get in touch with my father's relatives." Can anyone help her?
Page 3328
QUERY - SPARKS-BARR
Evan H. Street, Jr., 3106 Robinhood, Houston, Texas, 77005, has asked us to publish the following query: "I am interested in corresponding with anyone having information on Samuel A. Sparks, dry goods merchant, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the period 1840-1860. He married Elizabeth Barr and his mother's name was probably Sarah Sparks. He lived at 68 South 9th St. during most of this period."
Page 3328
QUERY - ANNA R. SPARKS
Sharon L. Aylsworth, P.O. Box 331, Madras, Oregon, 97741, asks for help in identifying Anna R. Sparks who was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery (I.O. O. F.) at Goldendale, Washington. The grave has no headstone, and the cemetery has only a record of her name. Other graves in the family plot include: John A. Eddings (1846 KY.-1913 Wa.); his wife, Nannie Anthelia (Snell) Eddings (1849 Missouri.-1920 Wa.); his daughter, Maggie (Eddings) Madsen (1872 Missouri. 1903 Wa.) ; his grandsons: Victor Madsen and Rex Madsen; and his brother-inlaw, James T. Snell (1857 Missouri.-1893 Wa.).
It is known that Nannie (Snell) Eddings and her brother, James T. Snell, had a sister, Ann R. Snell, born in 1855 in Marion County., Missouri. Did she marry FNU Sparks and move to this area of Washington? Family tradition says the Eddingses had "Sparks cousins in the Willamette Valley in Oregon in the early 1900's, and that one was named Vinnie or Veenie."
It is also known that James T. Snell had a relative (probably a sister), Maude Anna Snell, who married George R. Sparks in December 1864 in Monroe County, Missouri. When the 1870 census was taken of Monroe County, George Sparks, 29, was head of a household that included: Mary A. Sparks, 23; Shasteka Sparks, 4 months; James T. Snell, 13; John A. Eddings, 23; and Elizabeth Eddings, 18. Was Mary A. Sparks the same as Maude Anna (Snell) Sparks?
(See also page 1121 of the December 1967 issue and pages 2209-2210 of the June 1980 issue of The Sparks Quarterly, Wholes Nos. 60 and 110, respectively, for further information about this branch of the Sparks family.)