John A. McSparran

John Aldus McSparran
John A. McSparran
Born	October 22, 1873 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	January 28, 1944 (aged 70) Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality	American
Occupation	Farmer, Politician

John Aldus McSparran (October 22, 1873 - January 28, 1944) was a prominent landholder and politician from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

McSparran was the Democratic opponent to Gifford Pinchot in the 1922 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election. McSparran attended Lafayette College and took up dairy farming in Lancaster County, where his family had long been seated. He served for years as Secretary, Treasurer and eventually Master of Pennsylvania State Grange. In 1931 Governor Gifford Pinchot appointed McSparran Secretary of Agriculture of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

McSparran married first Bettie Harrison Goodwyn, the daughter of Judge Charles Frederick Goodwyn and Susan Lacy Tuggle of Nottoway, Virginia descendants of Peterson Goodwyn, William Thornton (Virginia burgess) and William Thornton (immigrant). Mrs. McSparran was also the paternal great-aunt of Charles F. G. Kuyk (General) and authors Henry Meade Williams and Mona Williams. They were the parents of five children including J. Collins McSparran. After the death of his first wife, McSparran married Sadie Holland.

References

• Beers, Paul D., Pennsylvania Politics Today and Yesterday: The Tolerable Accommodation, Penn State University Press, 1980.
• Denatured alcohol: Hearings before the Committee on agriculture, House of representatives, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session, on H.R. 11256., Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., July 14, 1916
• Freeman, C. M., Journal of proceedings of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, Vol. 50., The Rumford Press., Concord N.H., 1916.