This cherished family portrait features Henry Wesley Sprouse, his second wife, Peggy Jane Taylor and Henry’s fourteen children. Henry was born in Virginia in 1826 and probably lived his entire life in Buckingham County,  where he died February 11, 1901. His obituary in the Richmond Dispatch reads:

Mr. H. W. Sprouce, an old and respected citizen, was buried at his home yesterday. (1)

The photo is undated, but was probably taken circa 1896. Henry was about seventy years old. Fitzhugh, the youngest child was born in 1886 and here he appears to be about ten years old. Nannie Belle died  in 1898. Thomas and James died in 1899, followed by Mary in 1900, so the gathering of the family for this portrait is especially poignant.

Thank you to the Sprouse cousins who preserved and shared this photo.

Henry Wesley Sprouse is the 2x great-grandfather of Jesse Crews. Henry’s daughter Nannie Bell is Jesse’s great-grandmother.

(1) Richmond Dispatch., February 13, 1901, Page 5, Image 5. Chronicling America