See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, June, 1973, Whole No. 82 for a cover pictureof Elizabeth (Weaver) Sparks.
(The following notes taken from pg 1563, Sparks Quarterly, arecontinued from the notes for Elijah Sparks):
"My mind has long been fixed, & my principles unshaken. I have been(almost) nurtured under a Republican form of Government; and underthat form I hope to live and die -- That form I trust will decend tomy children, as their best eartly portion.
"My only aim in life, is to do all the good for mankind in my power,in that way an unerring Providence seems to have opened. Hence if youhad embraced the opinion, that I am an office hunter, I hope thatsentiment by this time, is removed -- If that is done, my end inwriting is obtained -- I wish no one upon earth to entertainunfavorable views of my Deportment, much less the heads of myGovernment.
"Pardon me my dear Sir, for thus troubling you -- I have wrote ingreat haste, & from the very Spur of the moment. When you have readthe contents, resign them to Oblivion. With an Humble, & sincereprayer to the Father of all, that you may be indulged with a long &prosperous life, I am with all due respect yours &c.
Elijah Sparks
"N.B. I refer you to Genl James Taylor, whom I expect you willshortly see, & he can inform you, whether or not, I deserve theopprobrious epithet of "Office hunter."
(Here the article names the six children of Elijah and Elizabeth(Weaver) Sparks and provides details about them and their descendantsstarting on page 1563.)
END OF ARTICLE IN WHOLE NO. 82 pp 1556-63
See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, December, 1974, Whole No. 88, pps 1699-1704for an article entitled HAVE WE FOUND THE PARENTS OF ELIJAH SPARKS OFEARLY INDIANA?
"The June 1973 issue of THE SPARKS QUARTERLY (Vol. XXI, No. 2, Who leNo. 82) was devoted to an article about Elijah Sparks of earlyIndiana. Part of the article was concerned with the lack of knowledgeas to his place of birth and as to his parentage. Contemporaries hadgiven conflicting testimony as to the place of his birth, some sayingthat he was born in Queen Annes County, Virginia (there was no suchcounty in Virginia) while others stated that he had been born inFrederick County, Virginia. None could tell who his parents were. Itnow appears from data recently uncovered that Elijah Sparks was bornin Queen Annes County, Maryland, and that his parents were Absalom andElizabeth (Brown) Sparks.
(continuing on page 1703):
"Robert Sparks, oldest son of Absalom and Elizabeth (Brown) Sparks,apparently took charge of handling the business of the family, and by1776 he had bought and sold property. It is this particular activityon his part that provided us the clue which led us to believe that theElijah Sparks of early Indiana was quite probably the same ElijahSparks who was the son of Absalom and Elizabeth (Brown) Sparks.
"Our readers will recall tht Elijah Sparks (of early Indiana) hadcomplained mildly in a letter written to President James Madison in1813 that "It was my misfortune ... to be deprived of Parents in veryearly life and from the Law of primogeniture & other misfortunes, Iwas thrown on the world, helpless and unlearned." This reference tothe Law of Primogeniture indicates that he had an older brother whohad been favored in some way in the settling of their parent'sestates.
There are other clues which help to confirm our belief that ElijahSparks, son of Absalom and Elizabeth (Brown) Sparks, was the ElijahSparks of early Indiana.
1. Elijah Sparks, son of Absalom, was probably born about 1765, thushe fits agewise the Elijah Sparks of early Indiana who was born,according to contemporaries, about 1770.
2. Both parents of Elijah Sparks, son of Absalom, died when he wasquite young; thus he would fit the situation which Elijah sparks ofearly Indiana related to President Madison...
3. Elijah Sparks, son of Absalom and Elizabeth (Brown) Sparks, had another brother named Robert Sparks as did Elijah Sparks of earlyIndiana. Elijah Sparks of early Indiana was on his way to visit hisbrother, Robert Sparks, a Methodist minister living on the EasternShore of Maryland, when he died in 1815.
4. Finally, both Elijah Sparks of early Indiana (who died in 1815)and his brother, Robert Sparks, became Methodist ministers quite earlyin their lives. (In Frederick Emory's QUEEN ANNES COUNTY, MARYLAND,published in Baltimore by the Maryland Historical Society, in 1950, p.223, it is stated that the Centreville Circuit of the Methodist Churchwas served in 1805 by Robert Sparks and William Fox and in 1806 byRobert Sparks and John Ruth.) Did the three small Bibles left byAbsalom Sparks when he died in 1771 have an influence on the decisionof twoof his sons to become ministers?"
See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, December 1997, Whole No. 180, pp 4904-6:
Mrs. Elizabeth Sparks, Died March 15, 1864 for a reprint of anobituary taken from THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, a Methodistpublication:
[Issue dated January 3, 1866, p. 6, Col. 1]
"Mrs. Elizabeth Sparks was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania,1772. Her maiden name was Weaver. She was of German descent, and herparents were members of the Dutch Reform Church. Her father died whenshe was a small girl, and her religious training was mostly from hermother. After the death of her father, her mother emigrated toVirginia, and located in Frederick county, near Wincher,ter. InVirginia, in those days, the people called Methodists were almostunknown. Those who dared to take this name upon themselves subjectedthemselves, not only to the sport and ridicule of non-professors, butalso to the most bitter invectives from such as declared themselves tobe servants of God. The name--Methodist--was cast out as evil, andhence it required no small amount of Christian courage and grace to bea Methodist.
"There came a day when a Methodist preacher made his way to Mrs.Weaver's neighborhood-- a house was opened to him, in which hecommenced his labors with the people. Out of the merest curiosity,Miss Elizabeth Weaver, in company with several other ladies, went tohear him the first time he preached to their neighborhood.Elizabeth's curiosity was soon satisfied, for, as the preacheradvanced in his discourse, she became deeply interested in the solemnGospel truths uttered. His sermon concluded, he announced that fourweeks from that day he would be there again. She then and thereformed the resolution to hear him again. The day upon which he was tobe there a second time came. He was at his post, and in the spirit ofhis Master. Miss Weaver was in the congregation, an attentive hearer,and ere the conclusion of that day's discourse she was pungentlyconvicted for sin, as were also several of her lady comrades.
"The friends of these ladies became greatly alarmed for them, anddeclared they should hear this setterforth of strange doctrines preachno more. God, nevertheless, blessed the labors of his servant amongthat people, and soules were converted, a Methodist class formed, and,before the close of the year, notice was given that, upon a specifiedtime, a quarterly meeting would be held at that place. ElizabethWeaver, and Major Ziev ,,Ier's two daughters, and an M. D.Is wife madeup their minds to attend the services of that quarterly occasion. TheDoctor having learned his wife's designs, determined to keep her awayfrom the meeting; and to make his purposes doubly sure, two or threedays before the meeting was to commence he blistered her largely withcantharides [i.e. "Spanish Fly,?].
"Major Ziegler's daughters were, it seems, spinsters, and the Major,to prevent them from attending the meeting, told them they must spindouble the amount of yarn the week of the meeting that they wereaccustomed to, and if they did this by Saturday night, they might goon Sunday. They wrought hard, and when Friday night came their taskwas accomplished.
"Saturday morning came; the Doctor's wife, notwithstanding hersuffering was great, from the influence of her blister, had a horsesaddled--the Doctor having been called away that morning onprofessional business--and she, with the Misses Ziegler, set out forthe quarterly meeting. They stopped at Mrs. Weaveris, and gained herconsent for Elizabeth to go also. At that quarterly meeting they alljoined the Church, and were powerfully converted. Elizabeth was thenin her nineteenth year. In her twentieth year she and the Rev.Elijah Sparks were married. At the time of their marriage Mr. Sparkswas engaged in the mercantile Business in Winchester, Virginia. In1798 they moved to Kentucky, and settled in Newport, oppositeCincinnati. They were members of the first Methodist class inNewport, and also attended a class in Cincinnati. A man whose namewas Lyons was the leader. In 1806, March 6th, they moved to.Indiana, and settled in Lawrenceburg. Here they opened their housefor preaching, and also became members of, and assisted in forming,the first Methodist class in Lawrenceburg. Rev. E. Sparks died in1815. Elizabeth Sparks, his widow, never married again. She was amember of the Methodist Episcopal Church seventy-three years,fifty-eight of which she belonged to the society at (Continued on page4906)
"Lawrenceburg, never having dissolved her connection with theMethodist people at Lawrenceburg from the time she first became amember of the little class there till the day of her death. From thetime of the death of her husband, Mrs. Sparks--so long as she kepthouse-never failed under any circumstances whatever--with theexception of personal ill health--to sacrifice to God upon the familyaltar morning and evening.
"Bishops Asbury, George, M'Kendree, and Roberts were among herspiritual advisers. Her house was a welcome home for the wearyitinerant. Strange, Griffith, Wiley, Lambden, and many others,welcomed her, no doubt, at the threshold of glory. All through herChristian life the Missionary cause laid near her heart. She feltthat the Gospel that had saved her soul. from death was able also tosave the heathen world, and she gave liberally to it. She took theAdvocate and Journal from the time it was first printed, til the firstnumber of the Western Christian Advocate was issued; she then ceasedto be a subscriber to the former, and became a life-long subscriber tothe latter. She never failed to do her part in paying her pastor'ssalary. On her death-bed she gave him some money, stating at the sametime she would not likely live to see the next ensuing quarterlymeeting.
"She was also patriotic in her feelings--a friend to her country andher country's soldiers during the diabolical Southern rebellion. Inher ninety-first year she assisted in making clothes for the UnitedStates soldiers. She died in her ninety-second year. She neverseemed to lose her social qualities, as do most persons who attain toold age. She was cheerful and happy to the end of her days.
E. W. BURRUSS
[Editorial Note:] A photograph of Elizabeth (Weaver) Sparks,1772-1864, taken in her old age, was featured on the cover of theissue of the QUARTERLY for June 1973, Whole No. 82. In that issue,beginning on page 1556, we presented a considerable amount ofbiographical information on Elijah Sparks, ca.1770-1815. A descendantof Elijah and Elizabeth (Weaver) Sparks, Miss Myra Firnhaber of NewYork City, stated many years ago that the exact date of birth ofElizabeth had been December 1, 1772, and that she had been one ofseven children of George and Frances (Brechbuhl) Weaver. GeorgeWeaver had died in May 1782. (Further information on the Weaverfamily, given in the issue of the QUARTERLY cited above, will not berepeated here.) Elizabeth (Weaver) Sparks died on March 13, 1864, atMoores Hill, Indiana, in the home of her son, Hamlet Sparks.
The children of Elijah and Elizabeth (Weaver) Sparks were:
1.Hamlet Sparks, born September 11, 1795. He died on January 30,1878;his obituary also appeared in the Western Christian Advocate, thetext of which begins on page 4913 of the present issue of theQUARTERLY. See page 4911 for the obituary of Hamlet's secondwife, Elizabeth L. (Chrisman) Sparks, who died in 1872.
2. Norval Sparks, born in 1800.
3. Eliza Ann Sparks, born April 3, 1803.
4. Green Sparks, born about 1808.
5. Helen Sparks, born about 1812.
6. America Sparks, born about 1815.