Cumberland County, Maine - Warren Sparrow
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Biography
Warren Sparrow
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 339-341


Warren Sparrow, a prominent insurance agent of Portland and an esteemed resident
of Deering, was born July 20, 1814, in Eastham, Mass., that town being also the
native place of his parents, Richard and Susan (Knowles) Sparrow.

This branch of the Sparrow family are the lineal descendants of one Richard
Sparrow, who emigrated from England in 1623, bringing with him his wife and
their son Jonathan, an only child, and locating in Plymouth, whence they removed
some eight to ten years later to Eastham, which is known as the second Pilgrim
settlement. The son afterward became very prominent in church and State affairs.
For his second wife he married the daughter of Governor Prince.

Richard Sparrow grew to man's estate in Eastham, where he learned the
carpenter's trade, which he followed in his earlier life, being for a number of
years a contractor and builder. In 1823 or thereabouts he erected a fine
residence in Orleans, which was formerly a part of Eastham, but was set off from
it and incorporated as a separate town in 1797. Here he started a general
country store, which he conducted nearly twenty years. Disposing of it in 1841,
he removed to Cambridgeport, Mass., where he lived retired from business
pursuits until his death, in 1848. He was a Whig in politics, being very active
in the management of local affairs while in Orleans, which he twice represented
in the legislature, besides holding various town offices, and serving for a
number of years as Trial Justice. His wife, Susan Knowles, was a daughter of
John Knowles. Of their union six children were born, namely: Rebecca K., who
married Captain James Smith, of Boston; Warren; Emeline; Sarah; Richard; and
Susan. Both parents were conscientious members of the Congregational church.

Warren Sparrow acquired his early education in the public schools of his native
town and at the Orleans Academy. When quite young he went to Boston, and entered
the employ of a Mr. Holbrook, a wholesale grocer on Commercial Street, remaining
there a year, when he became a clerk in the dry-goods store of Charles Warren &
Co. After being thus engaged two years, Mr. Sparrow pursued his studies for two
years in the Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., and then returned to Boston,
where he secured a situation as a clerk with Gardner Colby & Co., since the
beneficent donor to the Colby University at Waterville, Me.

In 1837 Mr. Sparrow, with noteworthy enterprise, started for the West, reaching
St. Louis at the end of a three weeks journey. Here he tarried for some time,
visiting several points of interest in Missouri and Illinois, traveling with
Professor Forrest Sheppard, of New Haven, a practical geologist, exploring a
considerable part of Southern Missouri and Illinois in search of coal and other
minerals. About this time he visited Chicago, which then contained about forty-
five hundred souls, while St. Louis could boast a population of twice that
number. He remained in Missouri, and was in trade there some two or three years
in a village on the bank of the Mississippi River a few miles below St. Louis.
In 1842 he closed up his business in Missouri; and in the early part of 1843 he
returned to Boston, where he was employed for the next year and a half in a
mercantile agency, a business which was then in its infancy.

Early in March, 1845, he came to Portland to take charge of the dry-goods
business of Charles H. Geer, whom he subsequently bought out, thereafter
continuing in the dry goods trade for five years. In 1850 Mr. Sparrow sold out
his stock of dry goods, and began dealing in carpets, opening on Free Street the
first store devoted exclusively to the carpet business in Portland. Some four
years later a Mr. Cogswell, who had removed to Portland from the eastern part of
the State, became a partner with Mr. Sparrow; and after a year or two he bought
out Mr. Sparrow's interest in the firm. Shortly after this Mr. Sparrow entered
into the insurance business, in which he still continues at the present time,
conducting it under the firm name of Warren Sparrow & Co., now enjoying the
distinction of being the oldest insurance agent in Portland.

In the advancement and prosperity of Portland and its suburbs Mr. Sparrow has
been an important factor, he having been the first man to suggest a street
railway for the city, and one of the five to whom the original charter was
granted, and the first seventy thousand dollars of subscriptions to the stock of
the road having been secured by his own personal efforts. In 1852 he built his
present residence on Arlington Street, Deering, there being at that time but two
small one-story dwellings between his house and the then small settlement at
Deering Point.

The marriage of Mr. Sparrow and Ann W., daughter of Thomas Geer, of Vergennes;
Vt., occurred November 3, 1842. On her mother's side Mrs. Sparrow is descended
from the Rev. John Woodbridge, who came from England to America in 1634, the
line of descent being continued through the Hon. Enoch Woodbridge, who was born
in 1750, on Christmas Day, and was graduated from Yale College September 14,
1774, he being a great-great-grandson of the immigrant ancestor. Enoch
Woodbridge was a veteran of the Revolution, serving as an Adjutant in General
Patterson's brigade, being with the army at Quebec when General Montgomery was
killed, and afterward being an active participant in the battles of Hubbardton
and Bennington, and at the capture of General Burgoyne. Of the seven children
born unto Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow five are living, as follows: Charles A., of
Kansas; Alice, wife of Benjamin B. Peck, general agent of the Newark Mutual
Benefit Life Insurance Company, living at Indianapolis; Annie, wife of Charles
D. Lamson, President of the Gas Company at Worcester, Mass.; Frank W.; and
Elizabeth G.

Mr. Sparrow has ever been active and influential in religious affairs, having
first united with the Salem Street Congregational Church of Boston, of which the
Rev. Dr. Blagden was pastor in 1832. Some twenty years later he severed his
connection with this church, and became one of the original members in the
organization of the State Street Congregational Church of Portland, of which he
and his wife are both members, Mr. Sparrow having held the office of Deacon for
several years. It is to him also that this community has been largely indebted
for some of the series of evangelistic services held in Portland during the last
twenty years. At the close of one of these there were added to the several
evangelical churches of this city over two hundred new members, chiefly as the
outcome of nine continuous weeks of religious services, led by the Rev. George
C. Needham, the evangelist, and Mrs. Needham, his wife.