My Genealogy Hound

Samuel G. Sparks, editor and proprietor of the Reporter and Falcon, at Somerville, Tenn., was born in Jonesboro, Tenn., July 25, 1837, and is the son of Dr. James L. and Mrs. Margaret C. Sparks, natives of Virginia and Tennessee. Our subject received his education at Jonesboro, at Martin Academy and at Washington College, and when young was in the printing business with his father, who owned and edited the Railroad Journal at Jonesboro, Tenn., but was afterward in the mercantile business until 1860, when he moved to West Tennessee and located at Somerville, and was appointed deputy chancery court clerk, serving in that capacity until 1862, when he went into the Confederate Army, in the Thirty-eighth Tennessee Regiment, and served until the war closed, and then went to Memphis, remaining there a short time, when he returned to Somerville. In October, 1866, he established with his brother, J. L. Sparks, the Somerville Falcon, and two years later bought his brother’s interest in the paper, and was the proprietor and editor of it until 1879, when he sold it and moved to Ripley, Tenn., where he engaged in the mercantile business until 1880, then moved to Brownsville, Tenn., and purchased the Brownsville Bee, but soon after moved the office to Somerville, and in connection with R. H. Yancey commenced the publication of the Somerville Reporter. In March, 1881, Mr. Yancey withdrew and Mr. Sparks became sole editor and proprietor of the paper. In June, 1883, he also bought the Falcon, and united the papers, and now issues the Reporter and Falcon. May 16, 1866, Mr. Sparks married Mary C., daughter of Isaac B. and Mrs. Margaret R. McClellan, of Somerville. Two sons have been born to this marriage: Samuel L. and Robert M. Mr. Sparks is a prominent Democrat and a member of the I. O. O. F., K. of H., and with Mrs. Sparks holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He has been a very successful newspaper man, and is an able writer and is extensively known.