John E. Sparling Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 379-380

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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JOHN E. SPARLING. Prominent among the business men of Bowdle, South 
Dakota, is the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, being the 
senior member of the well-known firm of Sparling, Gross & Co., dealers 
in agricultural implements. He is a a man of keen discrimination and 
sound judgment and transacts all business on the strictest principles 
of honesty and integrity. He is still a young man but has already 
attained an enviable position in business circles. 

Mr. Sparling was born in Leeds, England, October 27, 1870, a son of 
George and Sarah (Dyson) Sparling, also natives of, that country. The 
Sparling family is of Saxon origin and was founded in England at a very 
early day in its history. Our subject's paternal grandfather, James 
Sparling, was road overseer and tax collector in his parish for some 
years. Thomas Dyson, the maternal grandfather, is a stone mason, and 
still resides in England, at about the age of ninety years. 

George Sparling, our subject's father, was also born and reared in 
Leeds, where for eighteen years he engaged in coal mining. There our 
subject spent his boyhood mostly upon a farm, and attended the public 
schools, completing his education, however, after his emigration to 
America. It was in 1883 that father and son crossed the broad Atlantic 
and on landing in this country proceeded at once to Spink county, South 
Dakota, where the father took a preemption northwest of Northville, 
diving in a dugout until he proved up the same. He also took a 
homestead and tree claim in Potter county, upon which he erected a 
shanty, and there he engaged in farming until 1889. In the fall of 1884 
he was joined by the other members of his family and for a time they 
made their home in Northville. Losing all his horses from disease in 
1889, the father abandoned agricultural pursuits and removed to 
Gettysburg, Potter county, where he rented a store and embarked in the 
hardware business, buying a stock of goods on time, He had already 
become somewhat familiar with that business, having sold machinery for 
the Farmers Alliance while farming, and for three or four years he 
conducted his store at Gettysburg with fair success. On selling out, he 
came to Bowdle in 1894 and purchased the machinery business of Daniel 
Mason. In 1898 he admitted our subject to partnership, and the business 
was conducted under the firm name of George Sparling & Son, until the 
latter part of December of that year, when the latter, in company with 
John C. and Jacob C. Gross, purchased the father's interest and 
established firm of Sparling, Gross & Co., under which name business is 
now carried on. For three years John E. Sparling and his brother Arthur 
were engaged in the grain business, but their elevator at Bowdle was 
destroyed by fire in December, 1897. 

On the 6th of May, 1896, Mr. Sparling led to the marriage altar Miss 
Maud C. Clark, who was born in Cadiz, Ohio, but was reared in Nebraska 
and South Dakota. Her father, J. B. Clark, is an old settler of Potter 
county and now conducts a general store in Gettysburg. For two terms he 
filled the office of register of deeds and Mrs. Sparling served as his 
deputy for three years of that time. Socially Mr. Sparling is quite 
prominent and is connected with several civic societies, being a 
thirty-second-degree Mason, and a member of the Knights of the 
Maccabees, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen 
of America. in politics he is independent.