Thomas Sparrow was born in Utica, New York on July 30, 1818 and while still a boy he moved with his family to Huron County, Ohio. Soon thereafter he enrolled in Kenyon College where his brother, Reverend W. Sparrow, D. D., was a prominent member of the faculty. Upon completing his course of studies, he entered upon the study of law, at Columbus, under the tutelage of Phineas B. Wilcox. Upon completion in July 1840, he commenced the practice of law, which profession he followed throughout the remainder of his life in Columbus, Ohio. He gained a reputation for honesty and integrity and earned the respect of all who came within the sphere of his influence. He never held political office, but he was selected to serve on a number of investigating panels and boards whose responsibility it was to impartially uncover malfeasance and malpractice in various political offices.
Shortly after entering the law profession, he married Martha Sisson, the eldest daughter of Brother and Doctor Peleg Sisson of Columbus, and they were the parents of several children. Some six years prior to Most Worshipful Brother Sparrow’s death, his wife, Martha, passed away suddenly and he subsequently married two years later, to the widow of the late M. W. Brother Horace M. Stokes, who preceded him in the office of Grand Master of Masons in Ohio.
While still young Mr. Sparrow joined the Masonic Fraternity, was an active and sincere member and during his life earned the greatest honors and highest degrees of the Order. He was generous and bountiful in bestowing his charities, and ever ready to attend, at any hour of the day or night, the couch of the dying or the home of the impoverished. Many incidents of interest are related of his way of “doing good by stealth”, as he utterly detested the ostentatious display of benevolence that he often noticed around him.
M. W. Brother Sparrow was initiated on July 1, 1856 by Magnolia Lodge No. 20 of Columbus, Ohio, passed on July 24,1856 and raised on July 29, 1856. On the fourth of November of that same year he was elected Junior Warden and in 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1862 he presided as Master of Magnolia Lodge. He was Treasurer during the years 1863-1866 and 1868-1870.
In 1861 he was elected Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, in 1862 Deputy Grand Master, and served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio in the years 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1866.
Sparrow Lodge No. 400 granted a charter on October 21, 1868 and is located at Sunbury, Ohio is named in honor of Most Worshipful Brother Sparrow.
During his useful career in this city, Mr. Sparrow had been entrusted with many offices of public and private trust, and discharged all the duties pertaining to them with integrity, firmness and ability. He was Prosecuting Attorney when he was quite young, for a long time a member of the Board of County Commissioners, was twice Postmaster of the city, and was several times tendered other official positions of considerable magnitude, which he declined, preferring the pursuit of his private affairs to the endurance of the annoyances that attend the possession of a public position.
From the Columbus Dispatch August 7, 1871 ‘About a week ago Mr. Sparrow was thrown from his buggy while traveling Broad Street eastway and received a severe sprain of the left hand, in endeavoring to preserve himself from the fall;’ but to this he paid scarcely any attention and attended to his business as usual. Within a few days, however, his hand began to pain him and swell unnaturally, and he called into requisition the services of a physician, who discovered that there had been some sort of fracture of the bones of the forefinger and the necessary remedies were applied. On Friday afternoon he was downtown and on being questioned as to the circumstances of his hand being bandaged, he replied “Oh, it’s nothing but a painful sprain in my hand and a smash up of my fingers” – apparently having no thought of the accident being of any other than a trivial character. On Saturday afternoon lockjaw ensued, in consequence of the seemingly trifling wound and since the first appearance of that fatal trouble he has not been known to speak.
Death came to M. W. Brother Sparrow on August 7, 1871 in Columbus, Ohio. Masonic Services were held by the Grand Lodge and he was buried in Section 0, Lot 1 of Greenlawn Cemetery, Columbus.