Texas Counties
The William C. Sparks family moved in 1870 to Lamar County in the North Eastern quarter of Texas just South of the Red River. Today, this area of Texas is identified as the Piney Woods. The family remained there only a few months before moving West that same year to an area, then called Brown County but later organized into Callahan County. The families of William C. Sparks and his brothers Martin, and Jesse Hancock were never far apart after moving to Texas. Their uncle, the elder William C., had many years earlier settled his family farther East, in Nacogdoches, Texas. There were many Sparks relatives that had taken up residence in Lamar county long before William and Martin arrived. According to Sparks descendants, these Sparks brothers and their children were all stock raisers in the cattle business. They trailed cattle to the markets through Indian Territory, and made several trips to Oregon.