Memorable Manitobans: Alice Wilhelmina Hawkins Sprague (1853-1948)

Community activist.

Born at Derby, Connecticut on 8 August 1853, daughter of David Hawkins and Harriet Hawkins, she married Daniel Emes Sprague at Hamilton, Ontario on 20 June 1879 and they moved to Winnipeg where they had a son, Harold Champion Hawkins Sprague (1880-1948). She lived in Winnipeg for the rest of her life except for a period in California between 1918 and 1925. Her husband named the steamboat Alice Sprague after her. She survived two large residential blazes, of the Manitoba Hotel (1899) and the Casa Loma Building (1928). She was a member of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church. She died at Winnipeg on 1 February 1948 and was buried in the St. John’s Cathedral Cemetery. She is commemorated by Sprague Street in Winnipeg.

Sources:

Ontario marriage registrations, Ancestry.

“Manitoba Hotel destroyed twenty years ago last night,” Manitoba Free Press, 8 February 1919, page 19.

“Problem partly solved,” Manitoba Free Press, 27 March 1920, Automobile Section page 6.

“Sprague Street,” Manitoba Free Press, 17 April 1920, page 7.

“An album of Winnipeg women [Mrs. Alice W. Sprague],” by Lillian Gibbons, Winnipeg Tribune, 25 January 1941, page 13.

“Harold Sprague dies, aged 60,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 July 1942, page 4.

Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“Mrs. D. Sprague, pioneer, dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 2 February 1948, page 22.

Obituary [Mrs. Alice W. Sprague], Winnipeg Tribune, 2 February 1948, page 21.

Henderson’s Winnipeg and Brandon Directories, Henderson Directories Limited, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries.

This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 3 December 2020

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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