William Sprague | |
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Born | Providence, Rhode Island | February 23, 1809
Died | September 19, 1868 59) Kalamazoo, Michigan | (aged
William Sprague (February 23, 1809 – September 19, 1868) was a minister and politician in the U.S. state of Michigan.
Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The state's name, Michigan, originates from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of about 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area, and is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies.
Sprague was born in Providence, Rhode Island, a distant cousin of William Sprague, Governor of Rhode Island. He attended the public schools there, moved to Michigan, and settled in Kalamazoo, where he studied theology and was ordained as a minister. He was presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Kalamazoo district, 1844–1848. Sprague served as United States Indian Agent in Michigan 1852–1853.
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay.
Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest state in area, the seventh least populous, the second most densely populated, and it has the longest official name of any state. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. It also shares a small maritime border with New York. Providence is the state capital and most populous city in Rhode Island.
Kalamazoo is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. As of the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 335,340 as of 2015. Kalamazoo is equidistant from the major American cities of Chicago and Detroit, each less than 150 miles away.
In the early 1830s, Sprague was a circuit minister for many communities in central and southwest Michigan. He delivered the first gospel sermon ever given in Van Buren County, Michigan, in the first log cabin which was built in spring 1829. [1] He organized the first Methodist class in Niles in 1832 and was pastor there in 1862 when construction began on a historical Italianate style church building. [2] In the fall of 1832, Sprague became circuit pastor for Coldwater. [3]
Van Buren County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 76,258. The county seat is Paw Paw. The county was founded in 1829 and organized in 1837.
Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. In 2010, the population was 11,600 according to the 2010 census. It is the larger, by population, of the two principal cities in the Niles-Benton Harbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, an area with 156,813 people.
Coldwater is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,945. It is the county seat of Branch County, located in the center of the southern border of Michigan.
Sprague defeated incumbent Democrat Charles E. Stuart to be elected as a Whig, though he is sometimes also identified with the Free Soil Party, from Michigan's 2nd District to the Thirty-first Congress, serving March 4, 1849–March 3, 1851. He did not run for re-election. He retired to his farm in Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo County. He died in Kalamazoo, and was interred in Mountain Home Cemetery.
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.
Charles Edward Stuart was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan.
The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections as well as in some state elections. A single-issue party, its main purpose was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the Western territories, arguing that free men on free soil constituted a morally and economically superior system to slavery. It also sometimes worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed African Americans in states such as Ohio.
Prairie Ronde Township is a civil township located in the southwestern corner of Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,250 at the 2010 census.
Enos Thompson Throop was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who was the tenth Governor of New York from 1829 to 1832.
Benjamin Bourne was an American jurist and politician from Bristol, Rhode Island. He represented Rhode Island in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as a judge in both the federal district and federal appellate courts.
William Sprague, also known as William III or William Sprague III, was a politician and industrialist from the U.S. state of Rhode Island, serving as the 14th Governor, a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator. He was the uncle of William Sprague IV, also a Governor and Senator from Rhode Island.
The United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan is the Federal district court with jurisdiction over of the western portion of the state of Michigan, including the entire Upper Peninsula.
Circuit rider clergy, in the earliest years of the United States, were clergy assigned to travel around specific geographic territories to minister to settlers and organize congregations. Circuit riders were clergy in the Methodist Episcopal Church and related denominations, although similar itinerant preachers could be found in other faiths as well, particularly among minority faith groups.
Cathedral of Saint Augustine is a Catholic cathedral and parish church located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It is the seat of the Bishop of the Diocese of Kalamazoo. The parish was founded in 1856, the present chuch building was completed in 1951, and it was raised to cathedral status in 1970.
Peter Silvester was an American politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York, and a prominent Federalist attorney in Kinderhook. He was a mentor to Martin Van Buren, the 8th President of the United States and was the grandfather of New York Representative Peter Henry Silvester.
William Buell Sprague was an American Congregational and Presbyterian clergyman and compiler of Annals of the American Pulpit, a comprehensive biographical dictionary of the leading American Protestant Christian ministers who died before 1850.
Samuel McRoberts was a United States Senator from Illinois. Born near Maeystown, he was educated by private tutors and graduated from the law department of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in 1821 and commenced practice in Monroe County, and was clerk of the circuit court of Monroe County from 1819 to 1821. He was State circuit judge from 1824 to 1827 and a member of the Illinois State Senate from 1828 to 1830.
Swan Point Cemetery is a cemetery located in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Established in 1846 on a 60-acre (0.24 km²) plot of land, it has approximately 40,000 interments.
Walter Terry Colquitt was a lawyer, circuit-riding Methodist preacher, United States Representative and Senator from Georgia.
John Brown Francis was a governor and United States Senator from Rhode Island.
Edwin William Keightley was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.
John Telemachus Johnson was a minister in the Christian Church, an attorney, and a politician, elected as U.S. Representative from Kentucky. His older brothers, also politicians, included James Johnson and Richard M. Johnson, who served as Vice President under Martin Van Buren; he was the uncle of Robert Ward Johnson, also a politician.
John Brodhead was a Methodist minister, an American politician and a U.S. Representative from New Hampshire.
The Central United Methodist Church is located at 23 East Adams Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1977 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
William Ryland was a Methodist minister who served several terms as Chaplain of the Senate.
Dwight Grant Watson was an American football player and coach. He was the head football coach at Michigan State Normal College during the 1899 college football season. He was also involved in the telephone industry in its early years, serving as manager of the Michigan Telephone Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and as the general manager of the Van Buren County Telephone Company in the years prior to his death.
The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress is a biographical dictionary of all present and former members of the United States Congress and its predecessor, the Continental Congress. Also included are Delegates from territories and the District of Columbia and Resident Commissioners from the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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Preceded by Charles E. Stuart | United States Representative for the 2nd Congressional District of Michigan 1849–1851 | Succeeded by Charles E. Stuart |