Taken from the Sparks Quarterly Newsletter dated December 1998, Whole No. 184

When Jonas Sparks was about twenty years old in, we believe, the spring of 1754, he accompanied a number of his Sparks relatives in their move from Frederick County, Maryland, to the Forks of the Yadkin in North Carolina. Rowan County then included the large area known as the Forks of the Yadkin, but the part of Rowan County where Jonas acquired land was cut off from Rowan in 1822 to form Davidson County.

The first wife of Jonas Sparks, and the mother of his children, had the forename Elizabeth, but we have not discovered her maiden name. It is probable that they were married after Jonas came to North Carolina. Their daughter, named Elizabeth, was probably name for the mother.

In the autumn of 1773, when Elizabeth was eight year old, Jonas Sparks and his family joined the famous frontiersman, Daniel Boone, then a near neighbor of the Sparkses, in Boone's plan to establish a settlement in what would become the state of Kentucky. In his explorations, Boone had found a "promised land" to which he would lead families on the "Wilderness Trail" to this "promised land." The heads of these four were Daniel Boone's brother Squire Boone, and three brothers named Bryan, (James, Morgan, Jr., and William). (Daniel Boone's wife was Rebecca Bryan.)

Among these six families, there were about forty males old enough to carry rifles, and it was they who took the lead on the party's daily march. The women and small children followed on horseback, while youngsters driving a hard of cattle brought up the rear.

Although there was concern that they might encounter hostile Indians, all went well until October 10, 1773, as they were approaching the Cumberland Gap. Here they had to ford the Powell River. The armed men and boys crossed first to form a line to protect the women and children as they crossed, assuming that if Indians should attack, they would do so at the front of the party. Instead, there was an ambush, with the attack from the rear. During the ensuring battle, six you men were killed, including Daniel Boone's oldest son. No one in the Sparks family was killed. In Daniel Boone's autobiography, completed in 1784, he recalled: "Though we repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy affair scattered our cattle, brought us into extreme difficultly, and so discouraged the whole company, that we retreated forty miles to the settlement on the Clinch River."

Based on Bryan family memories and records, a great-grandnephew of Daniel Boone, a Dr. J. D. Bryan, wrote an article entitled, "The Boone-Bryan History" that was published in the 1905 Registrar of the Kentucky State Historical Society (Vol. 5, No. 9). Later this was published in the form of a booklet. In this, page 17, appears the following interesting reference to eight-year old Elizabeth Sparks:

...at the time of the attack by the Indians, the company was fording Powell's River. Elizabeth Sparks (a member of) one of the ...families from North Carolina, then about nine years old, was riding a gentle horse and carrying a baby brother before her. She was in the midst of the river when the Indians fired on the rear guard. My great uncle (i.e grand uncle) Henry Bryan, at a later date, married this Elizabeth Sparks in Kentucky, and they afterwards came to Missouri, where they lived until their death. She lived to be nearly one hundred years old. I have seen and heard from her talk often. She finally died at my oldest sister's house after I was grown."

An Indian War, known as Lord Dunmore's War, broke out not long after the Boone company retreat, and two years passed before the journey was begun again. It appears that Jonas Sparks and his family had returned to their old home on the Yadkin River in North Carolina well before June 1775 when Daniel Boone again began his Kentucky venture. He and his followers successfully reached the site on the Kentucky River where they built Fort Boonesborough and founded the dreamed-of settlement, but Jonas Sparks and family were not among them.

Henry and Elizabeth's association with the family of Daniel Boone continued, and when Daniel's venturesome spirit prompted him and his family to be pioneers again in an area that is today St. Charles and Warren Counties, Missouri, Henry and Elizabeth soon followed. other friends and relatives did, likewise, including Elizabeth's sister and here husband, Ester and Jesse Caton. They obtained land grants from the Spanish government. Spain then ruling the area.

The grave of Elizabeth Sparks Bryan is (south) across the street from the U.C.C. Church in Marthasville. Henry Bryan died on August 20, 1820, in that part of Montgomery County, Missouri, that became Warren County in 1833. Elizabeth had thus been a widow for nearly 43 years when she died. Elizabeth and Henry are believed to have had 10 children; most were born in Kentucky. (Daniel Boone died on September 26, 1820, and was buried close to where the Bryans lived in Warren County).