The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909 Page: 61
332 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Recollections of S. F. Sparks. 61
RECOLLECTIONS OF S. F. SPARKS.
My great-grandfather was a native of Ireland. He came to the
United States very early, was in the Revolutionary War between
the United States and Great Britain, and was killed at Minnes
Fort, Georgia; the date I do not remember. My grandfather was
a native of Georgia, married there, and moved to Mississippi in
1809. As far back as I remember he served as a deacon in the
Baptist Church, being a member of the First Baptist Church that
was constituted in Texas. He died at the age of eighty-seven
years.
My father was then about nineteen or twenty years of age. He
married in 1810. He served in the war of 1812, and was in hear-
ing of the battle of New Orleans, but did not arrive in time to
participate in the fight. He was sheriff of Yazoo County for
several years, represented the County until it was divided, and
Holmes County made. He then represented the new County, until
we moved to Texas in 1834. I was then sixteen or seventeen years
old. We first rented land in San Augustine County, but in the
fall of 1834 we moved and settled five miles north of the town
of Nacogdoches, on a league of land that my father had bought.
In the fall of 1835 I started to school, some twenty miles north
of us, in what was then known as the Williams Settlement. The
school was taught by T. D. Brooks. The school-house was fourteen
by fourteen feet, built of pine logs and with no floor. I think
eight of us attended school there. I did not stay more than a
month before General Cos invaded Texas with an army of 1000 or
1500 men, and there being a call for volunteers to meet them, I
left school and joined the army. My captain was H. T. Edwards
of Nacogdoches County.
We arrived at General Ed. Burleson's camp about one o'clock
one morning, and went to what they called the brush fence, where
all who wanted to fight could get arms. We drove the squad of
Mexicans that came to meet us across the river, and went into
camp. The next day, Col. Ben Milam and Frank Johnson walked
out, and made a mark on the ground, and said, "Who will follow
old Ben Milam into San Antonio? Those who will, cross to my
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909, periodical, 1909; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101048/m1/69/?rotate=270: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.