This page documents multiple
families (Bryant, Matthews, Welch, Dillard, Sparks, Gossett, Harvey, McBee, Cannon, Kirby, etc) that are so interlinked
that the reader is best served by the data being resident in a
single data base. Please see the references in the photo
galleries for background on these families. The first item in the
individual family photo galleries provides some brief family
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Notes for Thomas Sparks
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Thomas was living in Alabama when “the stars fell” (actually a metorite shower) in 1833. He was a farmer and a circuit rider, Baptist preacher.
Thomas is listed in the Index to War Pension Files, 1815-1926, Volume II, Old War #IA-R24329, TX, 24 May 1889, service 1836. He filed for a government pension on 9 February 1894 and was given $8 a month. He states "I contracted chronic rehenmatism and I contracted this decease during the latter part of the war commenced first with a burning sensation under each shoulder blade, and now effects my shoulders and sometimes my hips so that it causes excruciating pain and has effected me moor or less every since said war and I feel it today badly in my shoulders and hips." (NOTE: His application confirmed that he could write and, in fact, had a nice handwriting.) His last pension check was issued on 4 August 1904.
From Thomas’ Application for Military Pension, (Claim #46414), I learned:
a. He had sandy hair, blue eyes, and was 6 feet 3 inches, which was quite tall for that period of time. (The average man was about 5 foot 6 inches; Daniel Boone was 6 foot.)
b. He was a farmer, and had lived in Mississippi, CA, AR, and Texas.
c. He fought in the Creek Nation Indian War from 16 June 1836 to 21 July 1836 as a private in Captain McAdory’s 4th Regiment Alabama Mounted Volunteers, General McMillson Volunteers, lst Battalion commanded by General Scott. He was enrolled in 19 June 1836 at Cowaga mustered in 19 June 1836 at Camp 18 miles from Fort Mitchell, Alabama, and was mustered out with company on 21 July 1836 at Montgomery, Alabama.
Several thousand white troops were ordered into the Creek country in May 1836 (1,103 regulars, 4,755 Georgians, and 4,300 Alabamians). They were placed under the command of General Winfield Scott, whose Seminole campaign had fared so badly.”
In the affidavit accompanying Thomas’ application for military pension, he also stated “he did not aid or abet (voluntarily) the Confederate government, did not vote for secession because he was opposed to it, and he never held any office or exercised any authority under said Confederate government.” It is interesting to note that two of his sons, Thomas Jackson "Jack" and William, both fought for the Confederacy. His application also shows a Bounty Land Warrant No. 46414 for 120 acres was issued in October 1855.
Thomas Sparks had 3 wives and 4 sets of children--totalling 18.
The Old Tuskaloosa Land Office Records and Military Warrants, 1821 - 1855, Chapter IV, showsThomas purchased one section of land in Jefferson County on 18 October 1836. (A section measures one mile on each side and contains 640 acres.) Thomas and Jane Sparks moved to Pontotoc CO, MS, in early 1842 after removal of the Chickasaw Indians who had lived in AR and Mississippi.
After Jane died, Thomas must have moved to AR where he married his second wife, Elvira Atkinson, on 25 July 1854. He was 41 but I’m not sure of Elvira’s age. Thomas and Elvira treked from AR to CA during the Gold Rush where their son, Matthew, was born. Sometime after 1859, they moved to Jack CO, TX, where Elvira died.
Thomas Sparks married his third wife and last wife, Naomi (Beard) Braswell, on
1 September 1865 in Weatherford, TX. He was 52 and Naomi was 28. Naomi’s first husband was Richard Braswell who died at Corinth, Mississippi, during the Civil War by whom she had three children. (See the Beard and Braswell Family Histories) Naomi then married Thomas Sparks.
About 1868, Thomas and Naomi moved from Jack CO, TX, to Johnson CO, TX, 12 miles west of Cleburne on Hamm's Creek. They moved there to get away from the Indians. The three Sparks children were born there and grew up along with Naomi’s three children (named Braswell) from her former marriage.
Naomi Sparks died at the age of 50 and was buried on her youngest daughter's (Mary Anna Hapzibah) 15th birthday. Not long after Naomi died, Thomas moved to Coke County (Robert Lee) where he lived with his son, Matthew Marion. Thomas was active in his late eighties as an intinerant preacher. His daughter-in-law, Almeda (Marion’s wife), helped him prepare his sermons by reading the scriptures to him. His grandson, Brock, drove him to other communities to preach.
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