1st photo: Oscar Clarence Sparlin (abt. 1907) 2nd photo: Oscar and Bertha May (Ryan) Sparlin
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His parents were William Bazel Sparlin of Indiana, veteran of the Civil War, and Sarah Ellen Bryant of Missouri. They were married 18 Jan 1880 in Jasper, Missouri. They first lived in Nevada, Vernon Co., Missouri, where the couple was recorded on the 1880 census. Just before Oscar Clarence was born, his parents moved to Bentonville, Arkansas. Oscar, according to his birth certificate, was born 19 Dec 1882. His mother, Sarah, was 18 years old, and William Bazel was 41. There were other children of this couple, and Oscar told of two sisters, but only one other whose name is known, Juanita Elizabeth (Lizzie), born 14 Aug 1888 in Bentonville. Oscar was six years old at the time his sister was born.
Before 1989, Oscar’s parents divorced, and his father remarried to Bertha A. Ewing. Sarah and her daughter, Lizzie, moved in with her brother-in-law, William Johnson, and her sister, another Sarah Elizabeth. In 1900, they are recorded on the census with this large family in Jasper Co., MO.
Oscar Clarence left Missouri in 1901 at the age of 13. According to a 1990 letter written by his son, Estal, "he [Oscar] ran away from home with an uncle who was going to Oklahoma." He found his way in the territory to the Osage and Kaw Indian Reservation, where the census identifies him as a boarder and a farm laborer at the age of 18.
For nearly a decade, the large family of Robert Orson Ryan was also situated in Osage, where Oscar and Bertha, the daughter of Mr. Ryan, must have met. In 1906 (20 Mar), Oscar married Bertha May Ryan, age 16, in Pawnee Co., OK, just south and west of the Osage Nation. Shortly after their marriage, their son Estal Earnest Sparlin was born, 7 Aug 1907. Earnest was the name of one of Bertha’s six brothers, Earnest Eldridge Ryan and, eventually, the name was also passed down to Estal’s first son, David Earnest Sparlin.
Three years after Oklahoma became a state on 16 November 1907, the federal census of 1910 was taken. Records from this time forward support the character of Oscar Clarence as described briefly in that 1990 letter in which Estal wrote, “Dad would just not keep a job. He worked in a livery stable, as a janitor at the school, as a carpenter, etc. Mother finally started taking in washing (I picked it up and delivered it) in order to have a few dollars for groceries. Mother kept complaining to dad. Finally they were divorced in 1918.” It is not surprising, then, that Bertha May and her son, in 1910, are living with Bertha’s father, Robert Orson Ryan, and not with her husband, Oscar Clarence. Instead, Oscar Clarence is living as a lodger at Coal Creek, Pawnee Co., OK and listed as a laborer at odd jobs. According to his son, he was always known simply as "Jack," which may reflect his occupation in various trades.
The couple must have been together for some of those years (1910-1918), however, because Estal Sparlin possessed memories of the family and his father’s jobs. For example, in 1912, they lived in an Indian camp, where Oscar Clarence was a caretaker of the roundhouse (see photo below) in Osage Co. at the Gray Horse Camp, of which Estal had vivid memories. More significantly, Bertha and Oscar had another child in 1911, a boy they named Oscar Orsen after his father, Oscar, and grandfather, Robert Orson. At only 18 months old, this boy suffered severe burns to the bottom of his feet and died of the injuries.
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| Gray Horse Dance Hall 1912, Osage Co., Oklahoma |
In 1918, Oscar Clarence (age 35) filed his draft registration card, required for WWI. On the card, he listed Bertha May Sparlin as his nearest relative, so they may not yet have been divorced by 12 Sep, the day of the record. The card also records that he was tall, slender, with brown eyes and brown hair, features as in his photographs. At the time, he lists his occupation as janitor at a public school, remembered by his son, Estal, in his 1990 letter. It could not have been long after that Oscar and Bertha divorced. Estal recalled that it was in 1918.
Oscar Clarence continued to live in Fairfax, at least as late as 1930, when he is listed on the federal census as a deliveryman for a laundry. He appears to be residing in a boarding house setting, summarily, living a life very similar to the one before his divorce. Sometime in the years between 1930 and 1952, he moved to Pawhuska, also in Osage Co., and that is where his death occurred.
