The Waco News Tribune issue of December 14, 1946 carried a short article about the death of Dick Sparks, a former slave and once said to be the oldest resident of Wichita County at age 117. Dick had been confined to Wichita General Hospital for about six months, the article said, causing him to leave his home and property in Electra for what would be the last time. His Electra residence had been a gift from rancher Tom Burnett for “faithful services rendered” when Dick retired his first time. It was upon his leaving the Burnett Ranch that he was given his home.
To backtrack a little, Dick’s story began with his arrival in Texas. The dates of key events are a bit hard to pin down with any degree of accuracy, but he once said that he came to the state by horseback with the grandfather of Tom Burnett. This would have been before 1870 and Tom’s grandfather was named Jerry Burnett. Jerry was also the father of Samuel Burk Burnett. The longest known account of Dick’s story was an interview that he gave for the Wichita Daily News in its issue of December 7, 1945. Dick told of riding to Texas in 1876 from Springfield, Missouri. He said that he first rode all the way to Dallas and found it still to be a rather small town. Dick worked in Dallas for a while as a range rider before deciding to drift north to Iowa Park in Wichita County. There he hired on as a cowboy with Tom Burnett’s father, Burk Burnett. Burk later moved the bulk of his ranching operations to West Texas and the Panhandle while Dick remained to work for the son Tom who had ranch holdings of his own.
In the latter interview, Dick said that at that time there were still episodes of unrest between the settlers and the area tribes. He recalled not being able to safely stay out much later than sundown and that “you couldn’t light a match without you held it under your hat.” He also referred to the various outlaw types who would pass through the area from time to time.
He said that he eventually went back to work in Decatur for Dan Waggoner who also owned a larger ranch to the west of Electra. He had kind words to say about both Dan and Tom Waggoner. When he got too old to ride every day, he became a cook for one of the crews at a cow camp on the ranch until he finally had to retire. It is not all that unusual, but during his career, Dick worked for both the 6666 and Waggoner ranches.
While working for the Waggoner Ranch, Dick factors into another historical event. Teddy Roosevelt came to North Texas at the invitation of various ranchers in the spring of 1905. The party included Roosevelt, the ranchers, Quanah Parker, Dr. Alexander Lambert, Texas Ranger Captain W. J. “Bill” McDonald (assigned by Governor S. W. T. Lanham to protect Roosevelt) and others. A July 9, 1987 article in the Foard County News, Crowell, Texas, names Dick Sparks as cook for the group and he was called “one of the best range cooks in the West.” Though Sparks was working for Waggoner, the chuck wagon was from the 6666.
Dick was well known and liked in Electra. For quite a few years, he is thought to have been the only Black resident in town. Dick noted in the Wichita Daily News interview that he had lived near Wichita Falls for almost ninety years but except for his recent stay in the hospital, he had hardly visited Wichita Falls. His one memory was the Texas-Oklahoma Fair that occurred in 1925. That would have been about the fourth year of the event that began and ended in the 1920s. Dick preferred the outdoors and slower pace of a smaller town. The interview ended with Dick being asked if he preferred the old days to the current ones. He replied that he liked the old days better because “the range was open and I was young.”
The years finally caught up with him and Dick died at Wichita General Hospital on December 12, 1946. His informant on the death certificate was Harriet Ann “Kitty” Barwise, a long time Electra resident. She listed his date of birth as January 20, 1829, though Dick probably did not have any record of the date. Harriet Barwise’s mother was Effie Josephine Rowe. Electra has always been a small town and there are often numerous connections between families. There have been many Rowe and Barwise family members who lived there. One cousin of Harriet’s, William Henry “Willie” Rowe, had worked on the Waggoner Ranch for many years. His tenure probably overlapped that of Dick Sparks.
One newspaper account said that Dick Sparks was buried in Wichita Falls, but it is more likely that he was buried in Electra. According to the death certificate, his body was removed by James B. Totten of Electra’s Totten Funeral Home. Electra had at least two cemeteries at that time, and an Electra Public Library article offers the opinion that he was probably buried in a Colored or Black Cemetery, but with the exact location of the cemetery being unknown. There is no marker at any Electra cemetery for Dick. Apparently, he had no close relatives. At present there is a cemetery section that lies immediately to the west of the main body of the Old Electra Cemetery (north of town) that is named the Dick Sparks Cemetery. This cemetery may have been officially named for Dick after the year 2000, but in some news articles it was commonly referred to as the Dick Sparks Cemetery at least as far back as the 1980s.
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