Sprague, Joseph, 1783-1854

Joseph Sprague was an influential and respected politician in Brooklyn during the early to mid-19th century. Born in Leicester, MA in 1783, he worked as a merchant in Boston, and later as a farmer back in Leicester, before moving to New York (present-day Manhattan) in 1809, where he worked for a time as a school teacher. In 1811 he married Maria De Bevoise of the village of Bedford in Kings County (present-day Brooklyn), and for the next eight years Sprague divided his time between New York and Bedford, giving up teaching to try his hand at various trades. By 1819 Sprague ran a card-making factory in New York and had amassed a significant profit, with which he was able to purchase a house on Fulton Street in the Village of Brooklyn in Kings County.

Beginning in 1823, Sprague became actively involved in the political and social life of Brooklyn and garnered much esteem in the community. He was an instrumental player in obtaining charters for the Long Island Bank and the Brooklyn Fire Insurance Company, and he was elected to the board of trustees of Brooklyn in 1825. In 1826, together with Alden Spooner, he purchased a large plot of land in what is today the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene, which he offered to the village for the use of a poor house. In 1827, Sprague was voted president of the Village of Brooklyn, a position in which he served until 1832, and in which he implemented and oversaw a major street cleaning project that dramatically improved sanitary conditions in Brooklyn. He was the major player in obtaining the charter that enabled Brooklyn to be incorporated as a city in 1834, and in that same year he became the first president of the Long Island Insurance Company, a position he held for 10 years. In 1843, Sprague was elected mayor of the City of Brooklyn, for which he served two terms.

After his tenure as mayor, Sprague served in varying capacities in several important public offices, including the Board of Supervisors and the Board of Consolidation that oversaw Brooklyn's annexation of the towns of Williamsburgh and Bushwick. He was also a vocal advocate for the establishment of Washington Park in Fort Greene, a director of the Mechanics Bank, and grand treasurer of the Grand Masonic Lodge of the State of New York, as well as a member of the Hohenlinden Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. Sprague passed away at the age of 72 in 1854, and his funeral was highly attended by the Brooklyn citizenry.

From the guide to the Joseph Sprague papers, 1810-1842, (Brooklyn Historical Society)