The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Sprague, Charles

SPRAGUE, Charles, an American poet, born in Boston, Oct. 26, 1791, died there, Jan. 14, 1875. At the age of 13 he entered a mercantile house as clerk, and subsequently became a partner. In 1820 he became teller in the State bank; and in 1825, on the establishment of the Globe bank, he was appointed its cashier, an office which he held till 1865. From 1821 to 1830 he gained five prizes for prologues to be recited at the opening of theatres in New York, Philadelphia, Salem, and Portsmouth. In 1823 he obtained the prize for the best ode to be recited at the exhibition at the Boston theatre of a pageant in honor of Shakespeare; and in 1830 he pronounced an ode at the centennial celebration of the settlement of Boston. In 1829 he delivered a poem on “Curiosity” before the Phi Beta Kappa society in Cambridge, considered his best production. A collection of his writings was published in New York (1841; new ed., 1850), and a complete revised collection in Boston (1850; new ed., 1855).