ROYAL TYLER SPRAGUE; A SHASTA COUNTY 49NER & A CALIFORNIA SUPREME JUSTICE.

Royal Tyler Sprague, a native of Vermont, (according to the 1870 U.S. Census) was born about 1814. He led a busy productive life who started out as an elementary school teacher, and eventually Sprague opened his own school. Later on, he became a lawyer, and eventually the seduction of the California Gold Rush seduced him to venture west from Ohio to California where he settled in Shasta County in September of 1849, settling at Reading Springs (now Shasta), that month. This is where the forty-niner mined for gold on Clear Creek. He became a public figure holding various titles in the State of California, and ultimately, becoming a California Supreme Justice. He died on February 24, 1872, and is buried in the historic Old Sacramento City Cemetery, in Sacramento, California. You can learn more about this Shasta County pioneer in the following YouTube video from Exploring Shasta County History:

Filmed on location October 19, 2024.

Resources:

1850 U.S. Census

1852 California State Census

The Supreme Judgeship - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, May 22, 1858

Death of Chief Justice Sprague - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, February 26, 1872

Death of Judge Sprague - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, March 2, 1872

1860 U.S. Census

1866 California, U.S., Voter Registers

Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, October 10, 1867

Took the Oath - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, January 11, 1868

Appleton's annual Cyclopedia (1867), Volume 7, 1869.

1870 U.S. Census

Appointment of Supreme Judge. Russian River Flag. No. 17. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 7 March 1872. p. 2. 

Sacramento Daily Union, January 1, 1873, State & County Statistics (For the year 1872)

The Legislature Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 2, no. 247. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 6 January 1852. p. 2. 

My Playhouse Was A Concord Coach, an anthology of newspaper clippings and documents relating to those who made California history during the years 1822-1888, by Mae Hélène Bacon Boggs. Published by Howell-North Press ©1942

Shasta County, California A History by Rosena Giles, published by Biobooks, ©1949.

Johnson, J. Edward (1963). History of the California Supreme Court: The Justices 1850-1900, vol 1 (PDF). San Francisco, CA: Bender Moss Co. pp. 104–106. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 27, 2016. 

Old Shasta, Town of Shasta Interpretive Association with Al M. Rocca, 2005, Arcadia Publishing, p.

Sacramento Historic City Cemetery Burial Index (PDF). Old City Cemetery Committee. 2005. 

Online Archive of California, Royal T. Sprague journals, collection guide.