Background
Sprague, Homer Baxter was born on October 19, 1829 in Sutton, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Jonathan and Mary Ann (Whipple) Sprague.
Sprague, Homer Baxter was born on October 19, 1829 in Sutton, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Jonathan and Mary Ann (Whipple) Sprague.
Descended in direct line from William (youngest son of Edward Sprague, of Upway, Dorsetshire, England), who was joint founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts (1628-1629) and of Hingham (1636). Bachelor of Arts, Yale (class valedictorian), 1852, Master of Arts, 1855. Student Yale Law School, 1853-1854, also with Mayor Chapin, of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Admitted to bar, 1854.
Doctor of Philisophy, University of New York, 1873. Doctor of Laws, Temple University, 1916.
Practiced law at Worcester, 1855-1856. Principal Worcester High School, 1856-1859, practiced law at New Haven, Connecticut, 1859-1861. Member New Haven Board of Education, 1860-1861.
Raised 2 military companies for war, 1861.
Served as captain, major, lieutenant colonel, 13th Connecticut Infantry, 1862-1866. Wounded in action, Irish Bend, Louisiana, April 14, 1863.
Member of two “forlorn hopes”. Bvtd. colonel for conduct at Portuguese Hudson.
Recd. commission colonel 11th C.D.A.
Prisoner of war (battle of Winchester), September 19, 1864-February 1865. Served on courts martial, military commissions, educational superintendent, freedmens courts, et cetera, 1865-1866. Mustered out, April 28, 1866.
Principal Connecticut Normal School, 1866-1867.
Member Connecticut House of Representatives, 1868. Secured abolition of the odious tuition “rate bills,” thus making the public schools free, the reopening of State Normal School, and the trebling of the annual appropriation for teachers’ institute.
Professor rhetoric and England literature, Cornell Univercity, 1868-1870. Principal Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, 1870-1875.
Headmaster Girls’ High School, Boston, 1876-1885.
Founder and 1st president Martha’s Vineyard Summer Institute, 1879-1882. President Mills College, California, 1885-1886. President University of North Dakota, 1887-1891.
University extension lecturer, 1892-1896.
Professor and lecturer, Drew Theological Seminary, 1896-1900. Editor department rhetoric, Students’ Journal, 1898-1903.
Strongly supported for United States senator, North Dakota, 1889. President American Institute Instruction, 1883-1885 (director).
Councillor National Education Association, 1887-1888.
Associate founder and 1st president North Dakota Teachers’ Association Author: American Liberty, 1900. The Two Parties, 1900. The Assassination, 1901.
Alleged Law Blunders in Shakespeare, 1902.
The Nation’s Honor Roll, 1902. Right and Wrong in Our Civil War, 1903.
The People's Party, 1904. Recollections of Henry Ward Beecher, 1905.
The True Macbeth, 1909.
Appreciation of Daniel C. Gilman, 1910. War Pensions and Promises, 1910. Cæsar and Brutus, 1911.
The Elevation of His Statanic Majesty, 1912.
Metrical Version of the Book of Job, 1913. The European War—Its Cause and Cure, 1914.
Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons, 1915. Also many annotated masterpieces.
Editor Yale Literature and took 1st De Forest gold medal.
Home: Newton, Massachusetts
Member New Haven Board of Education, 1860-1861. Raised 2 military companies for war, 1861. Member of two “forlorn hopes”.
Member Connecticut House of Representatives, 1868.
Married Antoinette East. Pardee, December 28, 1854 (died 1913).