John Sparks
John Sparks, the Banker, was born in 1790 in Pennsylvania. He came to Adams County with his parents when a child and they located just east of where West Union was afterwards located. When a young man, he lived in Hillsboro. He began the business of merchandising in West Union on the corner now occupied by the present post office building, northeast corner of Main and Market Streets, in about 1820, and continued in that business until 1830, when he went to Union Landing, where he remained until the death of his wife in 1833. He returned to West Union in that year and went into the banking business and continued his residence in West Union until the thirty-first of July, 1847, when he died, and was buried in Lovejoy Cemetery. He was twice married. His first wife was Johanna Kelvey. She died September 26, 1823, aged twenty-three. She left a daughter who survived to the age of thirteen years. He was married to Sarah Sinton, sister of David Sinton, of Cincinnati, October 2, 1828, by the Rev. Dyer Burgess, who signed his name to the marriage record. "V. D. M."
While in the dry-goods business at West Union, he was in partnership at one time with Thomas W. Means, under the name of Sparks & Means. They were also the owners of Union Furnace. George Collings, the father of Judge Henry Collings, and John Sparks once owned and conducted a queensware store at Maysville, Kentucky. Mr. Sparks afterward sold his interest to a Mr. Pemberton.
Mr. Sparks had been a banker in West Union but a short time when he became a merchant. He was a man of great personal popularity in the county, and although often solicited, he would never consent to run for public office at a time when almost everybody did run for office. He loaned money and helped a great many men. John Fisher remarked of him that he was the best friend he ever had. John Loughry, of Rockville, said the same thing. Most of his life was spent in merchandising pursuits in Adams County. There were three children of this second marriage—one died in infancy, another is Mrs. Mary J. McCauslen, widow of Hon. Thomas McCauslen, of Steubenville, who has a separate sketch herein, and the third is George B. Sparks, a farmer, of Clinton, Indiana.
The esteem in which he was held by the citizens of Adams County was expressed at the time of his funeral. He is said to have had the largest funeral ever held in the county. Everybody turned out to show respect to his memory.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900