Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/465

 SPARKS

SPAULDING

legislature in 1857-58, and a state senator, 1863- 64 ; a delegate to the Democratic national con- ventions of 1868, 1884 and 1896, and a Demo- cratic representative from the sixteenth Illinois district in the 44th-47th congresses, 1875-83. He was appointed by President Cleveland in March, 1895, commissioner of the general land office, serving for nearly three years, when he resigned. He subsequently retired from active business. In 1903 he was a resident of St. Louis, Mo.

SPARKS, Willjam Harris, poet, was born in Greene county, Ga.. Jan. 16, 1800. He was named for William Harris Crawford, the statesman. His maternal grandfather, Col. David Love, of North Carolina, left his home at an early age and lived with the Cherokee Indians for four years. He subsequently served in Colonel Lynch's regi- ment under General Gates until after the battle of Camden, 1780, and died in 1798. William H. Sparks removed at an early age with his parents to a farm in Greene county, Ga. ; attended the common schools, and subsequently the law school in Litchfield, Conn. After being admitted to the bar, be began practice in Greensboro, Ga.; was a member of the state legislature, and in 1830 purchased a sugar plantation in Natchez, Miss. He practised law in New Orleans, La., about 1850-60, and was frequently urged to enter political life, declining among other nominations, that of U.S. senator. He is the author of : Some- body's Darling ; The Dying Year ; The Old Church Bell, and The Memories of Fifty Years (1870 ; 4th ed., 1883). He also contributed to southern publications, and left much work in manuscript. He died in Marietta, Ga., Jan. 13, 1882.

SPAULDING, Elbridge Gerry, representative, was born at Summer Hill, N.Y., Feb. 24, 1809; son of Edward Spaulding, and a descendant of Edward Spaulding the 'immigrant, 1630. He studied law in Batavia and Attica, N.Y. ; and practised in Genesee count}*, and in Buffalo, N.Y. He was city clerk of Buffalo in 1836; mayor of the city in 1837, and a represen- tative in the state legislature, and prac- tised with great suc- cess until 18.50, when he engaged in the banking business. He was president of the reorganized Farmers' and Mechanics' national bank ; was state treasurer, 1853, and a Whig representative in the 31st, 36th

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and 37th congresses, 1849-51 and 1859-63, and as chairman of sub-committee charged with the preparation of financial measures, he drafted the legal tender and national currency bank acts, securing their adoption as war measures. • He is the author of : History of the Legal Tender Paper Money used During the Great Rebellion (1869). He died in Buffalo, N.Y., May 5, 1897.

SPAULDING, Oliver Lyman, assistant secre- tary of the treasury, was born in Jaffrey, N.H., Aug. 2, 1833 ; son of Lyman and Susan (Mar- shall) Spaulding ; grandson of Phinehas and Sally (Fiske) Spaulding, and a descendant of Edward Spaulding of the Abbey of Spalding, Lincoln- shire, England, who caiiij to America about 1630, and settled in Braintree, Mass. Lyman Spaulding was a farmer, and his son, Oliver, worked on the farm, while receiving his prepara- tory education, and was graduated from Oberlin college, Ohio, in 1855. He subsequently taught school in Ohio and Michigan ; studied law ; was admitted to the bar in 1858, and began practice in St. Johns, Mich. He enlisted in the Union army in July, 1862 ; raised company A for the 23d Michigan infantry, of which he was commis- sioned captain ; served in Kentucky during the winter of 1862 ; was promoted successiveh' major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel, serving with his regiment, which had been assigned to the 2d brigade, 2d division, 23d corps, army of the Ohio, in the affairs between Lexington and New Market and in the pursuit of John Morgan ; participated in the occupation of East Tennessee by Burn- side ; in the Atlanta campaign ; the battles of Franklin and Nashville ; and in the movements which resulted in the fatal rout of Hood's army. He was transferred with his regiment to North Carolina, where he took part in tlie capture of Forts Anderson and Wilmington, and in the movements resulting in the surrender of John- ston's army : was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, and commanded the 2d brigade until the close of the war, after which he resumed the practice of law in St. Johns. He served as sec- retary of the state of Michigan, 1866-70 ; as mem- ber of the Republican state committee, 1871-78 ; was tendered and declined the appointment of U.S. district judge of the territory of Utah, in 1871 ; was special agent of the U.S. treasury de- partment, 1875-81 ; and a Republican represen- tative from the sixth Michigan district in the 47th congress, 1881-83, being defeated for re- election by a fusion of the Democratic and Green- back parties. He was chairman of the govern- ment commission sent to the Sandwich Islands to investigate the alleged violations of the Hawaiian reciprocity treaty in 1883 ; was again special agent of the U.S. treasury, January- December, 1885, and 1889-90, and was appointed