Hugh Sprague, Son of Esther Minerva (Pool) Sprague

©  Kathy Duncan, 2019

Hugh Sprague's story begins with his mother, Minerva Esther Pool, who was a daughter of Phebe (Holcomb) and James Pool, the blacksmith.

Esther Minerva "Minnie" (Pool) Sprague

In 1850 Minnie Pool was living in the McDonald County, Missouri household of her first cousin (and my great-great-great-grandmother) Hannah Holcomb, wife of John C Walker. Minnie was sixteen years old, and her sister Sarah was also living with the Walkers. At that time their mother Phebe was deceased and their father James Pool was in Santa Fe, New Mexico along with their brother Andrew Jackson Pool.

Esther Minerva Pool married Oliver Robert Sprague in Jackson County, Missouri on 1 April 1853.

By 1857 they were in living in Mississippi. Specifically, by 1860, they were in Warren County, Mississippi with three little boys: Hugh, age 5; Bartlett, age 3; and Morris, age 1. Oliver R. Sprague served in the Civil War and died in 1870.

On the 1870 census, Esther Minerva Sprague, widowed, was in Washington County, Mississippi with five children. Bartlett is missing from the household and may be deceased, but three children were added after 1860: Esther I., age 8; Joseph, age 4; and Della/Delilah, age 2.

Perhaps feeling overwhelmed with five children to raise, Esther Minerva Sprague decided to go to California where she had a brother - "Jack" Pool. A descendant of hers told me that Esther and the children were taking the train to California in 1873 when Esther became sick and died in Parsons, Kansas. The children were stranded, so their grandmother Leah Sprague came and got them and took them to live with her in Bourbon County, Kansas for a few years. Eventually, the three Sprague daughters and their brother, James Maurice Sprague, made it to California. The whereabouts of Hugh and Joseph are still in question.

It is evident from the census records that by 1870, Leah (Smith) Sprague was no longer maintaining her own household. Therefore, the orphaned Sprague children would have been dependent on the extended Sprague family. Additionally, I have not found a record of Leah being in Bourbon County, Kansas although she may have been there at some point.

In 1865, Leah (Smith) Sprague was living in her son Columbus Sprague's household in Douglas County, Kansas.

In 1870, she is head of household, living in Douglas County, Kansas with sons Perry and John.

In 1875, Leah Sprague was still in Douglas County, Kansas, but living in her son Perry Sprague's household along with her granddaughter Delilah Sprague, daughter of Esther M. Pool. The other children of Oliver R. and Esther Minerva (Pool) Sprague are not in the household.

Clearly, not all of the Sprague children were living with their grandmother Leah, and their whereabouts have not been determined.

Leah Sprague supposedly died in 1881, she but has not yet been found on the 1880 census. In 1880 Leah and her orphaned grandchildren are not in the household of her son Columbus, who was in Bourbon County, Kansas; or her son Perry, who was in Allen County, Kansas; or her son John C. Sprague, who was in Multnomah County, Oregon. It is possible that Leah was in the household of her son Guilford, or on her own, which seems doubtful since she has been living with her various children since 1865.

By 1880, some of the orphans or Oliver Sprague and Ester Minerva Pool were fending for themselves. Esther Ione Sprague was in Ottawa, Franklin County, Kansas in the Silas Piersoll household.

Joseph Sprague was in the household of Thomas F Blair in Marion, Bourbon County, Kansas.

James Maurice Sprague and Della/Delilah Sprague turn up later in California, so they were still living in 1880.

What happened to Hugh Sprague? He does not appear on any census after 1870. This newspaper clipping indicates that Hugh Sprague died in Oswego, Labette County, Kansas in 1873 and is likely buried there in an unmarked grave.