Lafayette Sproule
Dr. Lafayette Sproule (1839-1912) was Scott County’s second superintendent of schools, serving in that capacity from 1869 to 1871.
See Also: Scott County School Superintendents
Preceded By: J.C. Parker • Succeeded By: Laban Riseden
Biography
Born Nov. 20, 1839, Sproule was the son of Hiram Sproul and Pheobie Sproul. He grew up in Whitley County, Ky., just north of the TN-KY border, a short distance northeast of Jellico, Tenn.
Sproule was one of at least eight children. Little is known about his upbringing or education. He still lived in Whitley County, Ky. when the 1860 census was taken, but married Didama Marcum in Pulaski County, Ky. on June 15, 1865.
Didama Marcum was the older sister of Scott County Civil War heroine Julia Marcum. Following the events that played out at the Marcum farm on Smith Creek in eastern Scott County in 1861-1862, which resulted in Julia nearly being killed in September 1861 and her first cousin, George Marcum, being killed in January 1862, Julia and Didama’s father, Hiram C. Marcum, enlisted in the Union army, while the rest of the family fled north to the Green River in Casey County, Ky. They eventually moved to Flat Lick Creek in Pulaski County, Ky, near Somerset, Ky. It was there that Julia and Didama’s mother, Permelia Huff Marcum, died in August 1865.
Superintendent of Schools
Traditionally, Scott County’s second superintendent of schools has been listed as Lafayette Spaule, but nothing has ever been known of his identity. When the Scott County Retired Teachers Association presented the plaques of past school superintendents that still hang in the board room of the Central Office in Huntsville in 1981, Spaule was the only one they did not have a picture for.
However, an old hand-written document of the U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau, which existed from 1865 to 1872 to deal with freedmen and property that had been abandoned or seized during the Civil War, lists the county school superintendents of Scott County during the years of its operation, 1865-1872. For Scott County, it lists Dr. Lafayette Sproule, living in Huntsville.
It remains a mystery when the Sproule family moved to Scott County. While Julia Marcum moved in with Lafayette and Didama Sproule after their marriage, and wrote in her autobiography in 1926 that she moved back to Tennessee to teach for 12 years after the Civil War, the 1870 census lists Lafayette and Didama Sproule, their children Laura (age 4) and Charles (age 2), and Julia Marcum, living in Williamsburg, Ky. At that point, Julia — by her own writing — was teaching in Scott County, and Lafayette Sproule — according to the U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau — was serving as Scott County’s school superintendent.
It’s also unclear how Sproule — who would’ve been an outsider who was relatively new to Scott County in 1869 — was elected school superintendent in a rural community that generally distrusted outsiders. It could be speculated that Julia Marcum’s heroic actions during the war, which were well-documented, played a role in that decision. Scott County was fiercely loyal to the Union, and even declared its independence from Tennessee after Tennessee seceded.
The Scott County School System was formed in 1867. In its early days, school superintendents were elected by the Scott County Quarterly Court, a precursor to what is known today as Scott County Commission. John Crawford Parker, a future county judge and Helenwood attorney, was the first school superintendent, elected in 1867. Laban Riseden — who later served as county judge in Morgan County, and who was the father of Maude Riseden Hughett, the first woman to serve as superintendent of schools in Tennessee (Morgan County) and the first woman to graduate from the University of Tennessee School of Law — was the third superintendent of schools, elected in 1871.
It was not until 1924 that Scott County school superintendents were appointed by popular election.
Death
By 1880, the Sproule family had moved to Casey County, Ky., and they moved from there to Williamsburg, Ky. sometime between 1880 and 1900. Julia Marcum later moved to Williamsburg, as well. Didama Marcum Sproule died Sept. 17, 1908. Lafayette Sproule died Oct. 10, 1912. Julia Marcum died May 9, 1936. All three are buried at Highland Cemetery in Williamsburg.