See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, June, 1973, Whole No. 82 for a cover picture ofElizabeth (Weaver) Sparks.
(The following notes taken from pg 1563, Sparks Quarterly, are continuedfrom 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 under thatform I hope to live and die -- That form I trust will decend to mychildren, 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 in writingis obtained -- I wish no one upon earth to entertain unfavorable views ofmy Deportment, much less the heads of my Government.
"Pardon me my dear Sir, for thus troubling you -- I have wrote ingreat haste, & from the very Spur of the moment. When you have read thecontents, resign them to Oblivion. With an Humble, & sincere prayer tothe Father of all, that you may be indulged with a long & prosperouslife, 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 1699-1704 foran article entitled HAVE WE FOUND THE PARENTS OF ELIJAH SPARKS OF EARLYINDIANA?
"The June 1973 issue of THE SPARKS QUARTERLY (Vol. XXI, No. 2, Who leNo. 82) was devoted to an article about Elijah Sparks of early Indiana.Part of the article was concerned with the lack of knowledge as to hisplace of birth and as to his parentage. Contemporaries had givenconflicting testimony as to the place of his birth, some saying that hewas born in Queen Annes County, Virginia (there was no such county inVirginia) while others stated that he had been born in Frederick County,Virginia. None could tell who his parents were. It now appears fromdata recently uncovered that Elijah Sparks was born in Queen AnnesCounty, Maryland, and that his parents were Absalom and Elizabeth (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 activity onhis part that provided us the clue which led us to believe that theElijah Sparks of early Indiana was quite probably the same Elijah Sparkswho 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 in 1813that "It was my misfortune ... to be deprived of Parents in very earlylife and from the Law of primogeniture & other misfortunes, I was thrownon the world, helpless and unlearned." This reference to the Law ofPrimogeniture indicates that he had an older brother who had been favoredin some way in the settling of their parent's estates.
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 of earlyIndiana 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 early Indiana.Elijah Sparks of early Indiana was on his way to visit his brother,Robert Sparks, a Methodist minister living on the Eastern Shore ofMaryland, 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 early intheir 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 by RobertSparks and John Ruth.) Did the three small Bibles left by Absalom Sparkswhen he died in 1771 have an influence on the decision of twoof his sonsto 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 an obituarytaken from THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, a Methodist publication:
[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 to Virginia,and located in Frederick county, near Wincher,ter. In Virginia, in thosedays, the people called Methodists were almost unknown. Those who daredto take this name upon themselves subjected themselves, not only to thesport and ridicule of non-professors, but also to the most bitterinvectives from such as declared themselves to be servants of God. Thename--Methodist--was cast out as evil, and hence it required no smallamount of Christian courage and grace to be a 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 he commencedhis labors with the people. Out of the merest curiosity, Miss ElizabethWeaver, in company with several other ladies, went to hear him the firsttime he preached to their neighborhood. Elizabeth's curiosity was soonsatisfied, for, as the preacher advanced in his discourse, she becamedeeply interested in the solemn Gospel truths uttered. His sermonconcluded, he announced that four weeks from that day he would be thereagain. She then and there formed the resolution to hear him again. Theday upon which he was to be there a second time came. He was at hispost, and in the spirit of his Master. Miss Weaver was in thecongregation, an attentive hearer, and ere the conclusion of that day'sdiscourse she was pungently convicted for sin, as were also several ofher lady comrades.
"The friends of these ladies became greatly alarmed for them, anddeclared they should hear this setterforth of strange doctrines preach nomore. God, nevertheless, blessed the labors of his servant among thatpeople, and soules were converted, a Methodist class formed, and, beforethe close of the year, notice was given that, upon a specified time, aquarterly meeting would be held at that place. Elizabeth Weaver, andMajor Ziev ,,Ier's two daughters, and an M. D.Is wife made up their mindsto attend the services of that quarterly occasion. The Doctor havinglearned his wife's designs, determined to keep her away from the meeting;and to make his purposes doubly sure, two or three days before themeeting was to commence he blistered her largely with cantharides [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 go onSunday. They wrought hard, and when Friday night came their task wasaccomplished.
"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 on professionalbusiness--and she, with the Misses Ziegler, set out for the quarterlymeeting. They stopped at Mrs. Weaveris, and gained her consent forElizabeth to go also. At that quarterly meeting they all joined theChurch, and were powerfully converted. Elizabeth was then in hernineteenth year. In her twentieth year she and the Rev. Elijah Sparkswere married. At the time of their marriage Mr. Sparks was engaged inthe mercantile Business in Winchester, Virginia. In 1798 they moved toKentucky, and settled in Newport, opposite Cincinnati. They were membersof the first Methodist class in Newport, and also attended a class inCincinnati. A man whose name was Lyons was the leader. In 1806, March6th, they moved to. Indiana, and settled in Lawrenceburg. Here theyopened their house for preaching, and also became members of, andassisted in forming, the first Methodist class in Lawrenceburg. Rev. E.Sparks died in 1815. Elizabeth Sparks, his widow, never married again.She was a member 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 a memberof the little class there till the day of her death. From the time ofthe death of her husband, Mrs. Sparks--so long as she kept house-neverfailed under any circumstances whatever--with the exception of personalill health--to sacrifice to God upon the family altar 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, welcomedher, no doubt, at the threshold of glory. All through her Christian lifethe Missionary cause laid near her heart. She felt that the Gospel thathad saved her soul. from death was able also to save the heathen world,and she gave liberally to it. She took the Advocate and Journal from thetime it was first printed, til the first number of the Western ChristianAdvocate was issued; she then ceased to be a subscriber to the former,and became a life-long subscriber to the latter. She never failed to doher part in paying her pastor's salary. On her death-bed she gave himsome money, stating at the same time she would not likely live to see thenext ensuing quarterly meeting.
"She was also patriotic in her feelings--a friend to her country andher country's soldiers during the diabolical Southern rebellion. In herninety-first year she assisted in making clothes for the United Statessoldiers. She died in her ninety-second year. She never seemed to loseher social qualities, as do most persons who attain to old age. She wascheerful 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 the issue of theQUARTERLY for June 1973, Whole No. 82. In that issue, beginning on page1556, we presented a considerable amount of biographical information onElijah Sparks, ca.1770-1815. A descendant of Elijah and Elizabeth(Weaver) Sparks, Miss Myra Firnhaber of New York City, stated many yearsago that the exact date of birth of Elizabeth had been December 1, 1772,and that she had been one of seven children of George and Frances(Brechbuhl) Weaver. George Weaver had died in May 1782. (Furtherinformation on the Weaver family, given in the issue of the QUARTERLYcited above, will not be repeated here.) Elizabeth (Weaver) Sparks diedon March 13, 1864, at Moores 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 second wife,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.