Early Life, Family and Training Will Sparks was born on February 7, 1862, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Sampson Sparks and Julia Plowman. His early years in the Midwest were marked by a precocious talent for visual expression; he had already achieved his first sale as a painter by the age of twelve. Though he eventually turned his attention toward the study of medicine, the pull of the brush remained constant. He enrolled in the St. Loui…