Samuel Marion Sprinkle was born in the little village of Jacksonville, Meigs Twp., Adams Co., OH. He was the son of David Sprinkle & Elizabeth Metz.

He married:
(1) the widowed Eliza J. Brown Kelley on 25 Apr 1866 in Hamilton Co., OH
(2) Alice McNitt Motter on 28 Feb 1891 in Washington Co., KS.

Sam & Eliza had six children: Elizabeth (Townsend); Margaret A.; Myrtle (Dunham); Emerson L.; Daisy Pearl; & Grace Maude (Bennett). He also raised two of Eliza's children by her first husband: Mary Ann & Charlotte Isabelle "Belle" (Dodds).

Samuel and three of his brothers served in the Civil War. Sam first enrolled 18 May 1861 for three months in the 2nd Kentucky Regiment, Capt. Hurd's company. Later, he enrolled as a private in Company I, 39th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was discharged 9 Jul 1865. Samuel was wounded in the leg by a "minnie ball" near Atlanta on 30 Jul 1864. The wound resulted in the amputation of his left leg.

Samuel's obituary which appeared in a Mason newspaper (name of paper not known), includes:

"During the ten years immediately following the civil war, Mr. Sprinkle lived in Socialville, where he ran a grocery store and huckster business. About 1875 or '76 he moved to Pisgah, where he opened a general store in the building now occupied by A.J. Van Hise, to whom he sold out some twenty years ago. Here also he ran a huckster business in connection with his store and so much energy did he display that fortune smiled upon him as it has upon few country storekeepers before or since, and when in 1887 he decided to move to Mason, he erected the local opera house building and the residence adjoining, now occupied by J.W. Scull Jr., at an approximate cost of $18,000.

". . .During the seventeen years Mr. Sprinkle lived in Mason he bought sheep, wool, cattle, hogs, in fact almost any and everything the farmers of the community had to sell. In this also he was very prosperous but some three years ago he decided to try for himself the much-heralded climate and resources of the great southwest. He first went to Chickasha, I.T., but later moved to Enid, Okla., where he purchased property and erected a home."
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Samuel, his first wife Eliza Brown Kelley Sprinkle, and second wife Alice McNitt Motter Sprinkle are all buried at Rose Hill Cemetery. Their information is inscribed on one large marker in Section 3, Lots 164 and 165, with S.M. Sprinkle prominently displayed. One side of the stone shows Eliza Kelley Sprinkle, Samuel M. Sprinkle and Alice M. Sprinkle; another side is for Mary A. Kelley (a daughter of Eliza's); the third side for Samuel & Eliza's son Emerson L. ("Emmet") Sprinkle; and the final side for Samuel's sister and her husband, Martha Sprinkle Test and John Frazee Test. Smaller stones surrounding the larger monument are engraved with "Mother," "Father," along with stones for Samuel and Eliza's daughters Margaret and Daisy and for Eliza's son Harry Kelley.

Note that Samuel's date of birth on his tombstone varies from other records. I believe his correct date of birth is 12 Oct 1840.