Richard Sparrow
Richard Sparrow, a veteran of the Civil War, who for years has been making his home at Clifton, this county, was born on a farm in the neighboring county of Clark on May 11, 1844, a son of John and Mahala (Kelly) Sparrow, the former of whom was born in the state of Maryland and the latter in Kentucky, whose last days were spent at Clifton.
John Sparrow was reared in his native Maryland and as a young man came to Ohio and located in Clark county, where he presently married and established his home on a farm, continuing there engaged in farming until he was sixty-six years of age, when he retired and moved to Clifton, where he spent the rest of his life. He and his wife were the parents of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch and his sister, Mrs. Sarah Caroline Griffith, are the only ones now surviving.
Reared on the home farm in Clark county, Richard Sparrow received his schooling in the local schools of that neighborhood and was living there when the Civil War broke out. On February 15, 1864, he then being but nineteen years of age, he enlisted for service in behalf of the Union cause and went to the front as a member of Company I, One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, attached to the Army of the Potomac, under General Grant, and with that command served until the close of the war, being mustered out on June 25, 1865. During that period of service Mr. Sparrow was three times wounded, once at the battle of Cold Harbor and twice at the battle of Petersburg. Upon the completion of his military service he returned to the home farm in Clark county and after his marriage a couple of months after his return from the army, began farming on his own account. In 1881 he moved to Clifton, where he ever since has made his home. Mr. Sparrow is a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and by political inclination is "independent." About thirteen years ago Mr. Sparrow and his family suffered a serious loss by fire which destroyed their dwelling house, but in the rebuilding of the same they constructed better than before.
On August 24, 1865, Richard Sparrow was united in marriage to Lavina Wike, who also was born in Clark county, daughter of George and Elizabeth (Williams) Wike, natives of Pennsylvania, and to this union five children have been born, namely: Silas E., deceased; Elizabeth, who married Charles Hopping, of Yellow Springs, and has four children, Edwin, who married Frieda Centers and lives at Dayton, George Bert, Jeremiah Lee, who is now engaged as city meat inspector at Atlanta, Georgia, and Emma Lavina; Ulysses Clinton, now living at Dayton, who married Katherine Pauley and has four children, Helen, Richard, Alice and Charlotte; Katherine Jane, now deceased, who married Grant Hopping and had two children, Edna, who married Lewis Lindell, and Arthur, of Yellow Springs; and Harry, who died when nine years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow are members of the Presbyterian church.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918