Thomas Sparks

SPARKS, DUNN

Posted By: County Coordiantor
Date: 11/18/2006 at 23:02:28

Thomas Sparks, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, December 23, 1815, his parents removed to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, where they remained until 1837, when they retuned to Pennsylvania, young Sparks removing with them, in 1846 he emigrated to this county, where he has since resided, he had no educational advantages in early life except such as were furnished in the common schools of the states where he resided, his early education however has been supplemented by extensive reading and self-culture in later years, Mr Sparks as a descendent of a noble line of ancestors, who emigrated from England with William Penn in his first voyage to Pennsylvania in 1682, this ancestor, Oliver Copes by name, first settled on Naaman Creek in Pennsylvania, the record showing that he purchased of Penn five hundred acres of land, which were set off to him in 1682, although Mr Sparks has given his attention chiefly to the business of farming, he has also taken an active part in the political affairs of the county, at the election held in August 1849, for the purpose of organizing the county, he was elected to the office of county surveyor, a very responsible and important office in those days, since that time he has been elected to many important offices and has invariably discharged his official duties with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents, he at present resided about six miles south of Boone, where he owns a fine farm of 280 acres in an excellent state of cultivation, he married March 25, 1852, to Miss Esther A Dunn, a native of Pennsylvania, they have ten children: Leroy, Fremont, Eugene V, Asenath, James D, John C, Nettie J, Robert P, Edward F, and Louis P, have lost two, Laura Belle (died July 15,1862), and Charles L (died February 15,1864)

1880 Boone Co History Book