January 17, 2022
Pages 3346
Whole Number 144
PERSONS NAMED SPARKS APPEARING ON THE
1850 CENSUS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Merrimack County
Town of Concord
Page 80. Census taken August 15, 1850.
| 1211-1211 | Sparks, Caleb | 46 | (M) | Vermont | $1500 |
| " Elizabeth | 20 | (F) | " | ||
| " Gerald | 18 | (M) | " | ||
| " Henry | 16 | (M) | " | ||
| " Agnes | 9 | (F) | " | ||
| " Marcella | 7 | (F) | " | ||
| " John | 5 | (M) | " |
[Editor's note: No Sparks households have been found on any New Hampshire census record (1790-1840) prior to that for 1850. One Sparks family appeared on the 1850 census of New Hampshire, that being the family of Caleb Sparks, as shown above. Apparently Caleb Sparks had moved with his family from Vermont to Merrimack County, New Hampshire, no longer than five years before the 1850 census was taken, since all of his children, including 5-year-old John, had been born in Vermont. There can be little doubt that this Caleb Sparks was the same Caleb Sparks shown on the 1840 census of Windham County, Vermont (see page 3324 of the present issue of the Quarterly). We believe, also, that he was the same Caleb Sparks shown on page 3030 of the March 1987 issue of the Quarterly (Whole No. 137) as a son of Joseph and Eleanor (Orcutt) Sparks. He was born in Willington, Connecticut, on 3 February 1804. He married Chastina Pingree on April 12, 1829, at Sharon, Vermont, a daughter of James and Hannah (Merrill) Pingree (or Pingry, Pengry, etc.). Dr. William Pingry, in a "Pengry Genealogy" published in 1881 (page 136), stated that Chastina died in Fisherville (now called Penacooke), New Hampshire, in 1850. This must have been prior to August 15, 1850, when the census taker called at the home of Caleb Sparks.]