Sprouse, William T.

Born: 1802-XX-XX Tennessee

Alternate name: Sprouce

Sprouse arrived in Illinois before 1830, settling in Sangamon County. In 1830, he married Martha Combs. During the Black Hawk War, he was as a private in Abraham Lincoln's company of the 4th Illinois Mounted Volunteers. Sprouse served in Lincoln's company from April 21 to May 2, 1832, when he was promoted to Colonel Samuel M. Thompson’s regimental staff as a gunsmith. Sprouse received for his military service forty acres of bounty land in Menard County, Illinois, in 1853, which he assigned to Charles Luec, and an additional 120 acres of bounty land in DeKalb County, Missouri, in 1859, which he assigned to George Robertson. After the war, Sprouse returned to Sangamon County. In 1840, Sprouse was living in the county with four other persons in his household. By 1850, he was a blacksmith living with his wife and children in Petersburg, Illinois.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Sangamon County, 9 September 1830, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Muster Roll of Abraham Lincoln’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:171; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Sangamon County, IL, 24; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Petersburg, Menard County, IL, 275; Land Patent of the United States to Charles Luec, 2 July 1853, Warrant No. 14515, Menard County, IL, Land Patent of the United States to George Robertson, 1 December 1859, Warrant No. 68583, DeKalb County, MO, RG 49: Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Records of the General Land Office, Land Patents, 1789-2012, National Archives at Kansas City, Kansas City, MO.