Charles Ezra Sprague (October 9, 1842 – March 21, 1912) was an American accountant, born in Nassau,

Rensselaer County Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy. The county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the ...

, New York. He was a proponent of the

constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...

Volapük Volapük (; , "Language of the World", or lit. "World Speak") is a constructed language created between 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden, Germany, who believed that God had told him in a dream to create an ...

, for which he authored the first major textbook in English, '' Handbook of Volapük'' (1888), as well as an early organizer of the accounting profession. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, Sprague served in the 44th New York Infantry, seeing action at the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

, where his unit was instrumental in helping repulse attacks on

Little Round Top Little Round Top is the smaller of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—the companion to the adjacent, taller hill named Big Round Top. It was the site of an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union left f ...

. The New York State Archives stores a lengthy article Sprague wrote on his military service. He was president of both the New York Institute of Accounts and the Union Dime Savings Bank (which later became the

Dime Savings Bank Dime Savings Bank may refer to: * Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh, Brooklyn * Dime Savings Bank of New York The Dime Savings Bank of New York, originally the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, was a bank headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City. ...

). Later in life, he was involved in the movement for

reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

of English spelling as part of the Simplified Spelling Board, of which he was the first treasurer. He was heavily involved in the development of the first state certification of accountants in the United States. In 1953 he was inducted into

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Accounting Hall of Fame The Accounting Hall of Fame is an award "recognizing accountants who are making or have made a significant contribution to the advancement of accounting" since the beginning of the 20th century. Inductees are from both accounting academia and pract ...

. Sprague was the maternal grandfather of science fiction author

L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...

.De Camp, L. Sprague. "Talking to Ghosts." Article in ''The New York Times'', April 7, 1985, p. SM38.

Notes

References

*Miranti, Paul J.
Birth of a Profession
. ''The CPA Journal''. (1996). On-line version retrieved on 4 January 2008. *Rogers, Rodney K.
Sprague, Charles Ezra [1842-1912
. ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia.'' New York: Garland, 1996. pp. 548–550. On-line version retrieved on 20 July 2011.

External links

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Biography at OSU's Accounting Hall of Fame site
1842 births 1912 deaths American bankers People of New York (state) in the American Civil War Union Army soldiers People from Rensselaer County, New York Volapük Volapükologists 19th-century American businesspeople {{activist-stub