Andrew Jackson Spurlin (1817–1923)

Life

Andrew Jackson Spurlin's WikiTree profile and Find a Grave memorial share the same short biography. It says he was born on 30 June 1817 near Sparta in what is now Alleghany County, North Carolina, and that his parents are "believed to be" John Spurlin, an early Sparta farmer who died before 1860, and Polly Willey.^[1][2] WikiTree links him to the subject of the John Spurlin (1780–1851) entry.^[1][3] The biography says he farmed and ran a grist mill and a saw mill on the New River south of Independence, Virginia, "beside the Route 21 bridge," from 1850 until his death.^[1][2]

Grayson County records place him in the county by 1860. The 1860 agriculture census lists a "Jackson Spurling" with 50 acres of improved and 50 acres of unimproved land, a farm valued at $800, five horses, nine sheep and seven swine.^[4] In the 1870 census he appears as Jackson Spurlin, farmer, born in North Carolina, in the Elk Creek District, whose post office was Independence. He was recorded with $600 in real estate and $500 in personal property.^[5]

An obituary from the Grayson Gazette, reprinted in The Landmark of Statesville, North Carolina, on 8 March 1923, is transcribed on his Find a Grave memorial. It says he was known as "Uncle Jack," was born near Whitehead in Alleghany County, and was named for Andrew Jackson. Like Jackson, it says, he was a Democrat who voted until the autumn before his death. It also says that he and his wife voted together once women won the vote, "they then being past the century mark."^[2]

Family

WikiTree says he married Nancy Crouse soon after 1850.^[1] Her Find a Grave memorial gives her birth as June 1835, taken from the 1900 census, and her death as 25 October 1924 in Grayson County. It shows her buried in the same cemetery, the Martin Crouse Cemetery.^[6] The memorials list three daughters:^[6]

• Susan (1854–1934), who married Abraham Anders.^[1][2]
• Matilda Eveline "Tilda" (1859–1941).
• Cynthia Ellen (1861–1889), who married Haywood Wagoner. The Grayson County death register records that Cynthia E. Wagoner died of typhoid fever on 10 November 1889, aged 28, and names her parents as A. J. and Nancy Spurlin.^[7]

In 1870 the household was listed as Jackson (39), Nancy (34), Susan (16), Matilda (11) and Cynthia, together with an 18-year-old Joseph and an 8-year-old Wiley Taylor.^[5] The 1923 obituary says the couple had five children, two of whom outlived him.^[2]

WikiTree names his siblings as Eli (born 1841), Amelia (born 1840) and William (about 1830 – about 1864).^[1] Separate WikiTree profiles exist for William and Eli.^[8][9] Eli's Find a Grave memorial gives his dates as 15 April 1841 – 19 January 1929 and his burial as Crab Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Ennice, North Carolina.^[10]

Civil War service and pension

The shared biography says he joined the 51st Virginia Infantry and that his brothers joined the 22nd North Carolina Infantry.^[1][2] The National Park Service's Soldiers and Sailors index supports the second part: it lists Eli Spurlin and William Spurlin as privates in Company F of the 22nd North Carolina.^[11][12] It has no one named Spurlin, Spurling or Spirlin in the 51st Virginia,^[13] though that regiment did recruit in Grayson County.^[14] The index is compiled from National Archives service records, so a missing entry does not by itself rule out service.^[13]

Grayson County's Confederate pension board took up his case several times, according to Jeffrey C. Weaver's transcription of the board's minutes:^[15]

• June 1909: it disapproved A. J. Spurlin's application with the note "not a soldier."
• 3 July 1911: it approved his application and certified it to the circuit court.
• 5 July 1915: it approved his application for a higher rating.
• 24 March 1923: a month after his death, it approved an application from Nancy Spurlin.

The minutes do not say what service the 1911 approval was based on. Jeff Weaver's list of Grayson County men of military age records him as A. Jackson Spurlin but gives no unit; the list's introduction says it also includes men for whom no service record was found. The list says he applied for a pension in June 1909 and was "approved by the Grayson Co. Pension Board," without mentioning that month's refusal.^[16]

Age: the records compared

The 105-year lifespan on WikiTree and Find a Grave is not supported by the two census entries found so far. The sources disagree as follows:

If the census ages are right, he was about 92 when he died. The obituary's other ages also disagree with other records:

• It calls his widow "now 103" and says the couple married more than 80 years earlier, when she was 16.^[2] The 1870 census gave Nancy's age as 34, and her Find a Grave memorial dates her birth to June 1835.^[5][6]
• It gives his brother Eli's age as 86.^[2] Eli's memorial gives a birth date of 1841, which would have made him 81.^[10]
• It says his father, John Spurlin, lived to 96.^[2] His WikiTree biography says John died before 1860, and the linked WikiTree profile for John gives 1780–1851.^[1][3]

The 1900–1920 census entries, his Virginia pension application and a Virginia death certificate would show the ages recorded for him later in life. None of them has been checked for this entry. See also "Spurlin centenarians and longevity claims."