James was fifteen years old when he enlisted as a Private on November 1, 1776, serving three years in Captain Eli Leavenworth's Company, Colonel Meigs Regiment of the Connecticut Line. It was at this time that he married Mary Spooner of Harwick, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Their first child, Lydia was born in Warren, Litchfield County, Connecticut on September 28, 1777. During the war, they moved to Adams, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where James's parents and younger siblings lived. Four more children were born there - Anson on October 3, 1781; Ralph who was born about 1784; and Phebe and a twin who were born on February 23, 1788, but the twin died a few days after it's birth.
In about 1789 James and family left their home to settle in Ohio where James was granted 320 acres. Winter set in while crossing the Allegheny Mountains, and they stopped with their wagons in Bedford County, Pennsylvania to wait for spring's warmer weather before heading to Ohio. The family lived in Brothers Valley Township, which is now in Somerset County in a rented home. Mary became pregnant and gave birth to another child named Mary, who was born on February 28, 1792. Soon afterward, mother Mary became ill, so the family stayed in Pennsylvania. By 1794 James' wife Mary and their son Ralph had died.
On January 25, 1795, James married Susanna Rife in Bedford County, and remained in the rented house in Brothers Valley. James and Susannah remained in Pennsylvania, probably to settle her father George Rife's estate, where they had two children, Samuel and Jonathan. On October 10, 1799 James and Susanna sold the two parcels of land that she inherited for £100 each. One was for 126 acres and the other for 128 ¾ acres, both on the Glade Road. In January of 1800, James name is listed for the last time on the Bedford Township tax rolls. The Spragues continued the journey to Ohio and settled in Wakotomica, in what later became Muskingum County. In Ohio, Susanna delivered another nine children: Elijah; Elizabeth, William R; Elias; Lucinda;Rosanna; Lavina; James Jr; and Ralph.
James Sprague was described as a tall, strong, large boned man, 185 to 200 pounds, a fine example of the Ohio hunter and pioneer. He dressed in buckskins, wearing a fringed hunting shirt and coonskin cap. James was known as a great wolf hunter. Trading in wolf scalps was one of the few ways to make money, so many a wolf fell to his accurate aim. This hardy Revolutionary War Veteran, pioneer and hunter passed his life without severe sickness, and died in Monroe Township, seven years after his wife Susannah, at the great age of nearly ninety-seven years.