All I was doing was looking up Sparks and "Wilkes County"
on Newspapers.com and the first thing I saw was Cousin Colby!
on Newspapers.com and the first thing I saw was Cousin Colby!
THE REV. COLBY SPARKS (ca.1801-ca.1869)
AND THE SIAMESE TWINS
Most of our readers have doubtless heard of the "Siamese Twins," Chang and Eng, born in Siam (Thailand) in 1811, but we wonder how many know that the Rev. Colby Sparks, who was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in or about 1801, figured importantly in their lives. Your editor was reminded of this by an article about these famous twins in the April 1999 issue of Old News. It was the Rev. Colby Sparks, a Baptist minister of Trap Hill in Wilkes County, who was of some prominence in his day and who encouraged, and then performed, the marriage of the twins to sisters named Adelaide and Sarah Yates. Their unions resulted in a total of twenty-one children.
The 1.2.5.1.2.11 Rev. Colby Sparks was the 12th and last child of John and Sarah (Shores) Sparks. Born in or about 1801, Colby was married to Sarah Pruitt in 1822, and they became the parents of nine children. He died in or about 1869. Colby was a great- great- grandson of 1.2 William Sparks, who died in 1709 in Queen Annes County, Maryland. (See the Quarterly of Dec 1955, Whole No. 12, pp. 97-104 for additional information on Colby and his branch of the Sparks family.)
I have to check but Sarah may be one of my Pruitts, too.
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