Royal Sprague

Royal Tyler Sprague (born in New Haven, Vermont, Jan. 23, 1814; died Sacramento, California Feb. 24, 1872) was the 11th Chief Justice of California. Sprague taught elementary school in Potsdam, New York and later opened a school in Zanesville, Ohio. In 1838 he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in Ohio. The finding of gold in the Sierra Nevada prompted Sprague to become a "Forty-Niner". After arriving in California in September 1849, Sprague worked a claim on Clear Creek on the Sacramento River. He settled in Reading's Springs, now Shasta, California, and once again became an attorney. He was elected to the California State Senate in 1852. Sprague returned to Ohio briefly in 1852 to retrieve his wife Frances and their family; they returned to California with him. He had four children: Anna Maria Sprague (1845–1879); Arthur Hale Sprague (1848–1922); Ella Sprague (1853-5); and Frances Royal Sprague (1864–1957). Sprague was elected to the Supreme Court of California in 1867 (as a Democrat); he was chosen to be Chief Justice in 1872 and died the same year. He is interred in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery. A collection of his journals is in the collection of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.