SPROUL, GEORGE JASPER (1862-1931)

SPROUL, GEORGE JASPER, dentist and businessman; b. Studholm, Kings Co., N.B., 29 Mar 1862, s/o John Henry Sproul and Frances Cripps; brother of Heber Sproul; m. 1892, Jane Amanda Searle, d/o George Parkin Searle and Jane Elizabeth Vye, of Napan; d. Chatham, 11 Dec 1931.

The son of a popular conductor with the Intercolonial Railway, G. Jasper Sproul graduated from the Baltimore Medical College (DDS 1888) and settled immediately in Chatham, where he had spent the previous summer. The "first class dental establishment" which he opened in May 1888 consisted of three rooms en suite: a "tastefully furnished" waiting room, an operating room, and a mechanical room. People were amazed to learn that his operating chair alone cost $250, shipping charges included.

Dentists who had offered services previously on the Miramichi had been itinerants, and for the first two years Sproul also travelled to other Miramichi communities on certain days of the week. He announced in 1890 that he and his brother Dr Heber Sproul, who received his degree that year, would be providing full-time services in both Chatham and Newcastle, but even Chatham was too small to keep a dentist busy full time, and he soon acquired business interests to which he could attend when not in demand. In 1900, while his brothers Heber and Beverley Sproul (who had also become a dentist) were associated with him in his professional practice, he was the owner of a general store and of the Chatham Steam Laundry. He also took an interest in the commercial possibilities of the inventions of William H. Russell. He was elected president of the ill-fated Russell Electric & Hydraulic Co. in 1906, and was an incorporator of Russell's Canadian Dredge Manufacturing & Purchasing Co. In 1920 he was a founding director of Miramichi River Service Ltd, of which John P. Burchill was president.

Sproul was well known as a hunter and fisherman and owned wilderness land on the Bartibog River. This was the home territory of the Miramichi Fishing and Hunting Club, of which he was president when it was organized in 1915. In 1927 he was elected president of the local branch of the New Brunswick Fish & Game Protective Association.

Sproul was president of the New Brunswick Dental Society in 1895. He was still in partnership with his brother Heber in 1922 and remained a practicing dentist until a few weeks before his death. He and his wife, Jane A. Searle, who lived until 1951, had a daughter and five sons. There were several dentists among the sons, including Dr Frank E. Sproul (1899-1977), who practiced for periods of time in both Chatham and Newcastle.