Walter Sparks was born circa 1760 in Cranbury, Middlesex County, New Jersey, the son of Richard and Johanna (Applegate) Sparks. Shortly after his birth, the family relocated to a settlement near Wheeling on the Ohio River. It was there that his older brother, Richard Sparks Jr., was kidnapped by Shawnee warriors and not released until the mid-1770s.¹

During the latter 1760s, numerous New Jersey families migrated to the region between the Youghiogheny and Monongahela Rivers, an area commonly known as the “Forks of the Yough.” In present-day western Pennsylvania, this region came to be called the “Jersey Settlement,” comprising what is now Forward and Elizabeth Townships in Allegheny County.²

At the age of eighteen, Walter and his friend Elijah Hart took the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity, renouncing loyalty to King George III and pledging allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.³ The oath was administered in Yohogania County, Virginia, which at the time included present-day Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.⁴

“We, the undersigned, do swear (or affirm), that we renounce and refuse all allegiance to George the Third, King of Great Britain, his heirs and successors, and that we will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a free and independent State…”⁴

Walter served in Joseph Beckett’s company of the Westmoreland County militia, as recorded in a surviving roster dated 8 August 1778.⁵ His friend Elijah Hart later served as a lieutenant in the local militia.³

Around 1781, Walter married Phoebe (surname unknown) in what would become Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The 1783 tax list for Rostraver Township shows that Walter farmed 150 acres and owned one horse, one head of cattle, and three sheep. His household included four white inhabitants: himself, Phoebe, and their two eldest children:⁶
•    Richard Sparks, born 24 December 1781; died 3 September 1854
•    Elijah Sparks, born circa 1783; died 1840

Elijah later served in the 2nd Kentucky Regiment of Mounted Militia during the autumn of 1812.²

By 1786, Walter had likely relocated to north-central Kentucky, joining his brothers James and Daniel Sparks. In a pension application filed in 1833, James stated that he moved from “near where Elizabethtown now is” in Allegheny County to Jefferson County, Kentucky, “about the year 1782.” Daniel’s name appears on a poll list for Jefferson County dated 2 April 1782.²

Between 1782 and 1792, records are silent regarding Walter. During this time, however, three more children were born:⁷
•    William Sparks, born circa 1785; died 22 October 1843?
•    Daniel Sparks, born circa 1787; died 13 December 1859
•    Hannah Sparks, born circa 1789; death date unknown

On 11 March 1794, Walter purchased 96½ acres on Floyds Fork, southeast of present-day Louisville.² He continued acquiring land in the following years. The 1810 United States Federal Census records his household as consisting of Walter, Phoebe, and six children:
•    James Sparks, born circa 1790; served in the 8th Kentucky Regiment in 1813
•    Johanna Sparks, born 16 August 1793
•    Ezra Sparks, born between 1795 and 1797
•    Elizabeth Sparks, born circa 1800
•    Walter Sparks Jr., born circa 1802

Beginning in 1824, Walter and Phoebe began selling their property to their sons. In 1827, Walter was recorded as living on land owned by his son, Walter Jr.² No further records concerning Walter or Phoebe have been found after this date, and it is presumed that both died in the late 1820s or early 1830s.
 

Sources:

1. “Colonel Richard Sparks (32.3),” The Sparks Family Online, No. 87, pp. 1671–1688, www.sparksfamilyassn.org.
2. Russell E. Bidlack, “32.4 Walter Sparks (Born ca. 1760, Died ca. 1827) of Pennsylvania and Kentucky,” The Sparks Family Online, No. 140, pp. 2130–3163, www.sparksfamilyassn.org.
3. “Minute Book of the Virginia Court held for Yohogania County, First at Augusta Town (Now Washington, PA.) and Afterward on the Andrew Heath Farm near West Elizabeth 1776–1780,” Boyd Cumrine, Northern Micrographics [2004], The Digital Shoebox Project
4. “The 1776 Oath Required of White Male Citizens of Pennsylvania,” The Sparks Family Online, No. 181, p. 4976, www.sparksfamilyassn.org.
5. “Whose descendants are eligible to join the S.A.R.,” The Sparks Family Online, No. 108, p. 2172, www.sparksfamilyassn.org.
6. William Henry Egle, ed., Returns of Taxables for the Counties of Bedford to 1784, Huntingdon 1788, Westmoreland 1783, 1786, Fayette 1785, 1786, Allegheny 1791, Washington 1786…, Harrisburg, Pa.: W.S. Ray, State Printer, 1898. https://www.loc.gov/item/37032158/.
7. Kay Dawn Crawley Vaughn Family Tree, www.ourfamtree.org