William was born on November 19, 1828 near New Albany, Harrison County, Indiana, United States, the youngest of ten children of Baxter and Elizabeth (Gwin) Sparks. His ancestors on both sides were English and early settlers in Virginia; his parents had moved to Harrison County about 1805 and when William was seven they moved again, settling in Macoupin County, Illinois.
In 1840 the father died but William was allowed to continue his schooling in a nearby log house during the winter months. For several years he worked by day and spent his evenings in study; then he turned to teaching school. By 1847 he had saved enough of his earnings to enter McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois, where he graduated in 1850.
In early years after the death of his mother, when he was fifteen, he had to seek employment on a neighboring farm. After studying law in the office of Sidney Breese at Carlyle, Illinois, he was admitted to the bar in 1851 and immediately began practice. In 1853 he was appointed receiver in the federal land office at Edwardsville, Illinois. Characteristic of him is the story that upon the discovery of an apparent error of three dollars in his accounts, when he relinquished his receivership after three years, he journeyed to Washington by stage, compelled a re-examination of his books, and had them found exactly correct.
Meanwhile, in 1874, he was elected to Congress from a district regarded as Republican and was returned for three successive terms. In 1882 his district is said to have been gerrymandered and he declined to seek renomination. In the House he served on the Appropriations Committee and was later chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs.
After March 3, 1883, Sparks returned to Carlyle and developed a wide reputation as a jury lawyer. He had built up a "liberal fortune" when on March 26, 1885, President Cleveland appointed him commissioner of the General Land Office. In this position he performed his most notable public service. Public opinion had come to feel that the Land Office was dominated by the landgrant railroads, syndicates, speculators, and cattle barons, to the detriment of actual settlers; moreover the Land Office was handicapped by considerable arrears of work.
To aid him in his new duties Sparks had pugnacious honesty, good health, legal training, and an independent income. His attempts to reform the land service began with special reports on urgent cases, and his famous "April 3rd" order withheld the issue of patents for certain regions. He abolished the special privileges of the land lawyers of Washington. His thoroughly able reports of 1885, 1886, and 1887 set forth needed changes in land laws with cogent reasons therefor.
He was stanchly supported by President Cleveland and Secretary L. Q. C. Lamar, though Congress and the partisan press proved extremely hostile. As the result of a dispute with the Secretary regarding a railroad case, however, Sparks tendered his resignation, November 15, 1887, which the President accepted, while expressing cordial sympathy with his accomplishments. After a trip abroad, Sparks again practised law at Carlyle until about 1900, when he moved to St. Louis, where he died.
William Andrew Jackson Sparks was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses, he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior, Committee on Military Affairs. Later he served as Commissioner of the United States General Land Office.
He was known as a "Jacksonian" Democrat with a contempt for Civil Service. Being an able speaker, he took a prominent part in discussions, especially those on the tariff, currency, and military affairs. He was a strong advocate of government regulation of the railroads. He became excited in debate, and at one time a physical encounter between Sparks and Representative James B. Weaver was narrowly averted .
While at Edwardsville, April 16, 1855, he married Julia E. Parker. He left no children.
