DAVID B. SPARKS is a prominent factor in the business and financial life of Fort Smith, and he can look in retrospect over a most useful and honorable public service, for eighteen years having held the office of city clerk. He is a member of a prominent pioneer family and few citizens are known as widely and favorably as he. Mr. Sparks is one of that goodly company who were born here and although familiar with other scenes have elected to maintain their residence here permanently, here finding success and at the same time contributing to that of the whole community. He is very loyal to his native state and county and finds cause for deep satisfaction in the wave of progress and development which has swept over Arkansas within the past few years.

Mr. Sparks was born at the old Sparks home on North Third street, at what is now the corner of C street, on the 8th day of June, 1850, his parents being Mitchell and Hannah (Bennett) Sparks. The father was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, and as a young man followed the beacon light of opportunity from the shores of the New World, crossing the Atlantic as a young man in 1843. In that same year he found his way to Arkansas and eventually to Fort Smith, this location being doubtless due to the fact that his ship landed at New Orleans and he came up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers by boat. He was intelligent and enterprising, with all the Celtic characteristics which make for success, and in course of time he became a member of the firm of Miller & Sparks, general merchants, whose business was located on the river front of Fort Smith. This firm built up the largest and most prosperous commercial establishment of the early days of the city and in ante-bellum days the name of Mitchell Sparks was known far and wide, while it is indeed certain that in the intervening years the effect of his energy and progressiveness has by no means been lost. Mitchell Sparks died in 1864. His brother, Captain James H. Sparks, was a distinguished Confederate soldier in the war between the states, beginning his service as captain of the old Fort Smith Rifles, which were organized before the beginning of the war and which later became a part of the regular Confederate army. Mitchell Sparks wife was a native of Massachusetts, and their children were six in number, of whom three survive. David B. Sparks received a good education, supplementing his public school training with attendance at schools in New England and Maryland. Upon his return from school in the year 1872, when a trifle over twenty, probably hearkening a little to the adventure-loving dictates of his youthful breast, he accepted a position with the El Paso Stage Company, which operated stage coaches from Pierce City, Missouri, and Fort Smith, to Muskogee, Indian Territory, Sherman, Texas, and thence to El Paso, Texas, and later became general agent at Fort Smith. With his next line of business Mr. Sparks made a radical change by entering the mercantile field, and establishing a retail shoe business on Garrison avenue, which he successfully prosecuted for several years. His life seems to be divided in epochs and the next of eighteen years was devoted to public life and service, as city clerk at Fort Smith. His election to this responsible office was an unmistakable evidence of his high standing in the confidence and regard of his fellow citizens and he amply justified all their hopes as his successive re-elections testify. He has ever stood a stalwart champion of the general interest and the record made by him was exceptionally fine, both in efficiency and faithfulness. His tenure of office ended with the year 1910. Mr. Sparks has since been engaged as a loan and financial agent and is in charge of various interests of his own. Politically he subscribes to the tenets of the Democratic party, to which he has given his faith since his earliest voting days. The marriage of Mr. Sparks was solemnized on the 13th day of June, 1877, the young woman to become his wife being Miss Lillie Pryor, who was born in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, of a prominent family of pioneers. Their union occurred at Fort Smith. Beneath the pleasant roof-tree of Mr. and Mrs. Sparks have been reared seven sons and daughters, as follows: George; Jerry K.; Kate, wife of Charles F. Pittman; David B., Jr.; Neil; Hynes, and Martha. - One of Mr. Sparks' brothers, the late George T. Sparks, who died in July, 1908, was one of the most prominent and successful financiers in the Southwest. He was connected with the First National Bank of Fort Smith from the time of its founding in 1872; was its president for several years; and was a leading figure in building up that great institution. He was a most useful citizen and among his other deeds of beneficence was his gift, shortly before his death, of $25,000 for a hospital, which resulted in the building of the Sparks Memorial Hospital, named in his honor, the largest and most modern hospital in Fort Smith.