November 14, 2020

Pages 2026
Whole Number 103

SPARKS FAMILIES LISTED ON THE 1840 CENSUS OF ARKANSAS

In the Quarterl,y of September 1972 (Whole No. 79, p. 1513) we published a record of the persons named Sparks who were listed as heads of households in Arkansas on the 1830 census. The 1820 census of the Territory of Arkansas has been lost, so that for 1830 is the earliest Federal census that we have. Seven Sparks households were enumerated in 1830:

Reuben Sparks (aged 30-40) in Conway County;
Willoby Sparks (aged 20-30),
Matthew Sparks (aged 30-40), and
Absolom Sparks (aged 15-20) in Pope County;
Matthew J. Sparks, Sr. (aged 60-70) and
Matthew J. Sparks, Jr. (aged 20-30) in Pulaski County; and
Berry Sparks (aged 30-40) in Sevier County.

As will be noted below, we have found only four persons named Sparks listed as heads of households in 1840 in Arkansas. Willoby Sparks had moved east from Polk County to Hot Springs County by 1840, but each of the others had either left the state, died, or were listed as unnamed members of another household.

Readers are reminded that in Federal census records prior to 1850, only the name of the head of each household was recorded. Following his or her name, the members of the household were enumerated by age category and by sex.

  Males   Females
  0
5		 5
10		 10
15		 15
20		 20
30		 30
40		 40
50		 50
60		 60
70		 70
80		 80
90		 90
100		 +
100		 || 0
5		 5
10		 10
15		 15
20		 20
30		 30
40		 40
50		 50
60		 60
70		 70
80		 80
90		 90
100		 +
100
Crawford County
Upper Township
Willis Sparks (90) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 || 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Desha County
----ward Sparks (p. 116) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 || 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hot Springs County
Willoby Sparks (p. 156) 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 || 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
St. Francis County
John Sparks (p. 197) 1 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 || 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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