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| West Side of Main Street | Main Cross Street |
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| Main Street and Depot Looking South, with the L&N in the background, toward Owen County |
Exchange Hotel & Postmaster's House |
Postmaster's House |
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| Log shipped to the Talbert-Zoller Lumber Mill in Sparta, c. 1910. The Talbert - Zoller Lumber and Veneer Co. was on Winton Place in Cincinnati, and made a specialty of thin band-sawed quartered-oak lumber and veneers. |
Birds eye view of Eagle Valley at Sparta |
| “Ex-Governor J. C. Beckham
spent Monday evening at Sparta and was entertained at the Exchange
Hotel.” from an undated issue of the Warsaw Independent, c. 1915 |
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| The Sparta Covered Bridge a bit upstream from the current bridge |
Covered Bridge during Overhaul | |
| The bridge burned in 1935. The story is here. Perfunctory repairs were made. The bridge closed in 1938. | ||
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| Eagle Creek Scenes, c. 1920 | Dam on Eagle Creek, Sparta | |
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| Virgie and Walter Records, inside the Sparta Bank |
Sparta-Sanders State Bank, 1971 |
Sparta-Sanders State Bank, 1974 |
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| Interior of Sparta Bank When it was only the little corner building. That's Joe Weldon in the chair. |
Sparta Deposit Bank Letterhead, and Logos, 1918, 1904 |
Sparta Bank managers who ran the bank into FDIC liquidation. |
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Bank Examiners from the FDIC's liquidation division moved into the Sparta-Sanders State Bank on Friday, April 15, 1983. The subsequent coverage from the Gallatin County News: | ||
| April 21, 1983 | April 28, 1983 | May 5, 1983 | |
The Cincinnati Post had the story as well.
| “A meeting of the directors of the Sparta State Bank last Wednesday elected Thos. Slaughter, of Owen County and C. M. Gullion, of Sparta, President and Vice-President of the bank, to fill a vacancy made by the passing of Hon. R. B. Brown, who has been the president since the passing of Mr. H. Winn, the bank's first president.” Gallatin County News, March 31, 1934. |
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| Livery Stable of A. E. Kelly, opposite Depot, Sparta, Kentucky |
Sparta Garage, 1965 |
Dunavent's, 1965 |
Flood in Sparta, March 1, 1997
Harry and Brenda Breisachers, 1974
The Sparta Club
Folks in the picture are listed here.
Thanks to Dale Samuel for this one.
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| This is Colorado Grant. You can read more about him from Carl Varble's History of Sparta, here. Thanks to Dale Samuel for the picture on the right, taken in 1900, when Grant was 30 years old. Dale tells us Grant came to Sparta with the W. E. Black Wild West Show in 1907. Grant was shot and killed by one John True in Taylorsport, Kentucky in 1911. Grant was 41. One newspaper's review of The Colorado Grant Wild West show is here, and there's a list of the people managing the show in 1909, here. |
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Baroness Else von Freytag-Loringhoven & Felix Paul Greve, a.k.a. Grove. Know anything
about an avant guard artist and her scheming husband who fled Europe to hide in Sparta? Proving
once more that truth is always more bizarre than fiction. Sometimes a lot
more. Read about'em here.
Someone's even written a book about Elsa. The book review is here.
Seven Sparta Residents
from the November 23, 1939 Gallatin County News
| “This town will have a new and large tobacco warehouse, where growers of this section may dispose of their crops. A stock company has been organized, and the entire issue of stock has been subscribed by citizens of Sparta. The promoters of the enterprise are W.H. Curer, H. Winn, J. B. Grant, C. M. Gullion, and B. W. Records. The building will be ready August 15, in time to take care of the present growing crop. The company will be known as the Sparta Warehouse Company.” Courier-Journal, July 5, 1905 |
87,000 people in Sparta
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| Letterhead of the Sparta Stockyards | Willadean Nurseries, 1937 | Smith Garage, 1920's |
Carl Varble's History of Sparta, here.
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| This home belonged to Joe Wilson. It burned in the 1930's and was replaced by a red brick home that sets on the hill above the 4 way stop. |
The ladies in the buggy are of Joe Wilson's wife, and her mother, Mrs. Carver. Location unknown. | The Sparta Bridge | This store is the three story hardware store owned by Joe Wilson that burned in 1942. |
These four photos were given to us by Dale Samuel, via Betty Jo Wright. She had gotten them from Mr. Carl Varble.
Kentucky Post, November 23, 1925
| “Wm. L. Connelly, of Walton, Ky., left Swayne's Hotel, Old Sparta, Owen county, Kentucky, on Monday night, to cross Eagle creek. He has not been heard from since. His boat was found loose on the rocks on the bottom. A bloody club was found on the bank and a note, saying, 'This is not the man we wanted.' A hat and overcoat belonging to Connelly were found also, in the boat. He had considerable money on his person. People are searching for the body. There is no clue to the murderers.” the Carrollton Democrat, April 16, 1870 | On March 16, 1878, the state approved “that the auditor draw his warrant on the Treasurer in favor of M. B. Judy, late Marshall of the town of Owenton, in Owen county, for the sum of thirty-one dollars. for expenses of horse, hire, toll, and feed for a posse of twelve men paid by said Judy on the 7th day of September, 1876, attending at Sparta, Kentucky, for the purpose of suppressing apprehended disturbance from the Tom Allen and Joe Goss prize fight.” |
| The turnpike from Owenton to Sparta to span Eagle Creek, is authorized in 1868. | |
| Heard about the Buried Treasure in Sparta? No? Click here. | Emma Riley's History of Sparta is here. (pdf) |
| “The discovery by a Gallatin Countian of a fossilized mastodon jaw with three perfect teeth attached in the dry bed of a creek near his home at Sparta appears to prove that these prehistoric animals lived and died elsewhere in Kentucky than at Big Bone Lick.” Louisville Courier-Journal, November 27, 1924 | |
| “The new telephone exchange at Sparta is now in full operation, with Mrs. McCormick at the helm. She will be remembered as the accommodating head of the local exchange several years ago. The company erected a new building next door to the Sparta Deposit Bank and its plant is now installed in it.” Owenton News-Herald, December 14, 1906 | |
| The application, with pictures, of the Turley house, for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, is here. (pdf) | |
| 1926 Sparta High School teachers throw a party, here. | 1876 fire seriously burns Sparta. Read it here. |
| In 1915, there's a cowboy riding to Sparta to prove his love. Here. | |
| Sparta incorporated in 1852 as a real city. In Owen County. | Sparta Academy chartered in 1882 on the Owen side. |
| The first woman to serve on a federal jury was from Sparta. | $500 tops friendship in Sparta. |
| Hotel proprietor shoots man for not paying a debt, story here. | The temperance crowd vrs. James M. Samuels, here. |
| “Sparta, Ky., Dec. 8. - At a local option election held here today prohibition was defeated by an overwhelming majority.” Louisville Courier-Journal, December 9, 1900 | A ruinous flood in 1905 in Sparta, here. An 1897 flood kills a man, here. |
| “The Sparta School Board has decided to give Sparta that which she well merits - a nine months school and a four year high school course instead of the eight month term and three years course that has been the norm.” Warsaw Independent, April 20, 1918 | |
| “The telephone line from Owenton to Sparta passes over a distance of thirteen miles, and the sounds are heard as distinctly as they would be if the line were only 200 yards. This is a practical demonstration of the value of this discovery, which no doubt will be an incentive to the establishment of other lines.” The Hartford Herald, October 8, 1879, reprinting an item from the Frankfort Yeoman. | “During the last week several men in disguise attacked and robbed the colored folks at several cabins in the neighborhood between New Liberty and Sparta.” Courier-Journal, December 9, 1871 |
| The lead mine in Sparta. | |
| 1942 Fire Destroys Sparta. Read it here. | Mob lynches ax murderer from Sparta, here. |
| “Tuesday night of last week a young man named Swango was killed at Sparta by McFarland, a toll-gate keeper on the Warsaw and Owenton Pike. Swango was killed with a knife and was terribly hacked up. Whiskey was at the bottom of it.” from the Covington Journal, March 15, 1873 | |
| A Shooting in Sparta. The story's here. | Yet another murder here. |
Sorry, we know nothing about this one.
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Eagle Creek Bridge at Sparta
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| Sunday School reunion in Sparta, 1905. “One of the greatest gatherings ever held in this quarter” |
Sweet Owen Patent Flour, Sparta, Kentucky |
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| Bill Gross | Nicholas Vergerg | A group of show people in Sparta. A list of the names is here. |
| C. E. Carpenter's Grocery | Vernon Brock's Sparta Livery Stable | Carver, Kennedy & Carver, Livestock Buyers | E. F. & R. N. Cull Blacksmithing |
| Scott Moore's Exchange Hotel | F. G. Hurley's Barber Shop | L. B. Marston's Sparta Livery & Bus Line | Ward Dickerson's Livery |
| J. B. Samuel & Co. | J. W. Abbott Abbott & Son | Jacobs & Meyers | Ella Crisler's Millinery |
| Sparta Deposit Bank | V. A. Brock's Sparta Roller Mills | Sparta Produce Company | P. H. Vories |
| This is a collection of ads from various businesses in Sparta from an early issue of the Warsaw Independent of April 29, 1914. Good stuff. | |||
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| Will and Alms Riblin | Mort Riblin Home (on the hill behind the Baptist Church) |
Ellis / Carver Home | Kindle Home in Sparta |
By all means click to enlarge this one.
The boy is Kirtley Senour; the girls are unknown.
John Samuel
The Stone Lick School, near Sparta
Front and back
That's the best we could do with the contrast on the names listing.
Sparta School Classes
Sidney Rebecca Gano, or Miss Rea (pronounced “Ray”)
Her History of Sparta is here.
Indianapolis News, November 12, 1900
