Charles Sprandel Dies Wednesday. Charles W. Sprandel, pioneer Little Falls businessman, died at St. Gabriel’s Hospital Wednesday (April 5, 1972). He was born in Little Falls (October 18, 1889), the son of Charles and Karolyn (Keastner) Sprandel, and attended the Brickyard School, the old Columbia grade school, Little Falls high school and business college. As a young man, he assisted his father in the manufacturing of brick at the Sprandel Brickyard. Many business places and homes in Morrison County were built from bricks manufactured by this firm and stand today as a reminder of the part played by the company in Little Falls history. The company employed as high as 45 men during the season, which began about May 1, and manufactured 3,000,000 or more bricks each year.
The yard closed in 1910 with the last bricks being used to erect the Little Falls Junior High School. Strangely enough, a little later when the Sprandel Building was built on 1st St. NE (now Thrifty Drug), the family had to buy brick from another manufacturer for the construction. After his discharge from the Army at Fort Dix in World War I, Sprandel returned to his home town and went into business for himself, which he operated until his retirement in 1964. He was married to Margaret Thomas on Aug. 19, 1923, who survives him, along with one son, Charles W. Jr. Also surviving are one brother and three sisters: George W., and Mrs. Roy (Eva) Venners, of Little Falls; Mrs. George (Merlin) Luce of Annandale, Minn.; and Mrs. Virgil (Margaret) Hannsberry of Seaside, Calif. He was a charter member of the Richard Howard Ferrell Post of the American Legion, World War I Barracks, the Little Falls Pinnacle Club, the Fox Hunters Association and the International Sportsman’s Committee. He was an avid hunter-sportsman and was recognized as an authority on all species of wild life. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Simonet Funeral Home. (unknown source)