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  5. William Sprague (Michigan)

Deaths on September 19

1868Sep, 19

William Sprague (Michigan)

William Sprague, American minister and politician (b. 1809)
William Sprague (February 23, 1809 – September 19, 1868) was a minister and politician in the U.S. state of Michigan.

Sprague was born in Providence, Rhode Island, a distant cousin of William Sprague, Governor of Rhode Island. He attended the public schools there, moved to Michigan, and settled in Kalamazoo, where he studied theology and was ordained as a minister. He was presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Kalamazoo district, 1844–1848. Sprague served as United States Indian Agent in Michigan 1852–1853.

In the early 1830s, Sprague was a circuit minister for many communities in central and southwest Michigan. He delivered the first gospel sermon ever given in Van Buren County, Michigan, in the first log cabin which was built in spring 1829. He organized the first Methodist class in Niles in 1832 and was pastor there in 1862 when construction began on a historical Italianate style church building. In the fall of 1832, Sprague became circuit pastor for Coldwater.Sprague defeated incumbent Democrat Charles E. Stuart to be elected as a Whig, though he is sometimes also identified with the Free Soil Party, from Michigan's 2nd District to the Thirty-first Congress, serving March 4, 1849–March 3, 1851. He did not run for re-election. He retired to his farm in Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo County. He died in Kalamazoo, and was interred in Mountain Home Cemetery.

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Events on 1868

  • 24Feb

    Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

    Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.
  • 10Apr

    British Expedition to Abyssinia

    At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two British/Indian troops die.
  • 16May

    Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

    United States President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.
  • 25Sep

    Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia

    The Imperial Russian steam frigate Alexander Nevsky is shipwrecked off Jutland while carrying Grand Duke Alexei of Russia.
  • 27Nov

    Battle of Washita River

    American Indian Wars: Battle of Washita River: United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land.

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