Federal land patents to Spurlins
The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records list 94 federal land patents to people surnamed Spurlin, issued between 1823 and 1963. Most are for land in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana before the Civil War.
Sourcing: strong 3 government · 1 reference
A land patent is the document by which the United States passed title to public land to a private owner. The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office (GLO) Records site indexes these patents for the public-land states. A search of its patent records for the name "Spurlin" returned 101 results in September 2026.[1][2]
What the search found
Three results use Spurlin only as a given or middle name: an 1855 patent to Spurlin P. Moody in Arkansas and two 1824 Alabama patents that list a William Spurlin Gates among seven patentees.[1][2] Four more are the same patents indexed twice, in two GLO series.[1] That leaves 94 patent records naming a person surnamed Spurlin.[1]
By state, the 94 are: Alabama 27; Mississippi 14; Arkansas 12; Louisiana 12; Missouri 4; Oklahoma 4; Colorado 3; Idaho 3; Illinois 2; Indiana 2; Kansas 2; New Mexico 2; and one each in Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon and South Dakota.[1] The earliest is dated December 1, 1823. Sixty-two were issued before 1861 and 21 in 1900 or later.[1] GLO labels most of them "State Volume" patents. Fourteen are "Serial Patent" records, seven "Military Warrant", two "Miscellaneous Volume" and one "Timber Culture"; the 1891 patents to Andrew J. and Stonewall J. Spurlin are indexed both as "State Volume" and as "Serial Patent" records.[1]
Alabama
The earliest patent went to Green Spurlin on December 1, 1823, for land in what GLO lists as Lowndes County (accession STA-AL0140__.282). Patents in the same name followed in Lowndes County (1825 and 1831), Shelby and Talladega counties (1835) and Lamar County (1839).[1] William Spurlin received two Covington County patents in July 1824.[1] An Alabama Historical Association marker at Andalusia lists a William Spurlin among the early citizens of Covington County's first county seat.[3]
Six patents are for Coffee County land. They went to William Spurlin (1849 and 1858), Jeremiah Spurlin (1849), Jeremiah G. Spurlin (1852) and William J. Spurlin (1858 and 1882).[1] See Spurlins of Coffee County, Alabama. Other Alabama patents went to Spurlins in Clarke, Clay, Pike, Escambia, Randolph and Bullock counties between 1844 and 1872, and in Escambia, Crenshaw and Covington counties between 1899 and 1901.[1]
Elizabeth Spurlin's homestead
GLO records a patent dated March 20, 1884, to Elizabeth Spurlin and William Spurlin. It covers the east half of the southeast quarter of section 36, township 8 north, range 17 east, in what GLO lists as Crenshaw County (document 2917; STA-AL4640__.176).[1] An Interior Department list of suspended public-land entries for the year ending June 30, 1884, explains the background. It includes Elizabeth Spurlin's homestead entry at the Montgomery land office, number 2917, for the same tract.[4] The list says her final proof was not made in time and gives the reason as "ignorance." The Board of Adjudication confirmed the entry.[4]
Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas
Eleven of the 14 Mississippi patents are in the names of Levi Spurlin (seven) and Eli Spurlin (four), for land in Hinds and Rankin counties dated 1835 to 1841.[1] Nine of the 12 Louisiana patents are for land in Bossier Parish. They went to Green Spurlin (five, 1853–1860), Alfred J. Spurlin (three) and Eli Spurlin (1850).[1] In Arkansas, nine patents dated 1860 are in the name of Green Spurlin, all for land in Lafayette County.[1] The name Green Spurlin thus appears on 20 patents in three states between 1823 and 1860; the GLO records do not show whether one man or several held them.[1] A Green K. Spurlin who died in Lafayette County in 1860 is discussed in Spurlins of early Georgia. George W. Spurlin received a Garland County, Arkansas, patent in 1875 (see Spurlins Ferry and Spurlin Cemetery).[1]
Military warrants
Three of the seven "Military Warrant" patents are for Bossier Parish land: one each to Green Spurlin and Alfred J. Spurlin in 1853, and one to Green Spurlin in 1860. The other four are for Bates County, Missouri, tracts dated May 10, 1859, in the name of John L. Spurlin. One of the Missouri patents also names Jane Coffey, and another names Martha Anderson.[1]
The Midwest and West
Spurlins received patents for land in Indiana (1835, 1841), Illinois (1848, 1849) and Iowa (1858).[1] Later patents went to David Spurlin in Norton County, Kansas (1890, including a timber-culture patent), Stonewall J. Spurlin in Delta County, Colorado (1891; the county is also home to Spurlin Mesa), and Andrew J. Spurlin in Ventura County, California (1891).[1] Hiram and Thaire Spurlin received patents in Clark County, Idaho, between 1906 and 1919. Four Oklahoma patents, three of them in Harmon County, date from 1907 to 1923. Others were issued in New Mexico (1913, 1919), Florida and Minnesota (1911) and South Dakota (1912).[1] The two latest are a 1938 patent in Jackson County, Oregon, and a 1963 patent in the Matanuska-Susitna area of Alaska.[1]
Notes on the records
County and parish names are those shown in the GLO index. When this article was written, the redesigned GLO site did not give individual records their own web addresses. This article therefore cites the search results and quotes accession numbers, which can be used to find a record again.[1] The search was for the name Spurlin, and no records spelled Spurling appeared in its results, so patents under variant spellings are not counted here.[1]
See also
- Spurlins of Coffee County, Alabama · Genealogy mixed
Spurlins from Houston County, Georgia, settled around Elba and New Brockton in Coffee County, Alabama, by the mid-19th century. They took up federal land patents, served in Confederate regiments and appear through a century of the Elba Clipper newspaper. The rockabilly singer Tommy Spurlin was born into the Elba family, and streets in neighbouring Covington County carry the name. - Spurlins Ferry and Spurlin Cemetery (Garland County, Arkansas) · Places mixed
Garland County, Arkansas, near Hot Springs, has two Spurlin-named sites: a historical river crossing that GNIS records as Spurlins Ferry, and Spurlin Cemetery on Papas Trail, a family burial ground with about 160 Find a Grave memorials whose earliest dated burial is from about 1890. A family tradition links the cemetery's Spurlins to a James Spurlin said to have been killed at Hot Springs in the 1840s. - Spurlins of early Georgia · Genealogy mixed
Spurlins were in Georgia from the late 18th century, around Warrenton, Greene County and Macon, and several were children or grandchildren of "Big John" Spurlin of North Carolina. From there branches moved into Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida and Texas. - Spurlin Mesa, Colorado · Places strong
Spurlin Mesa is a summit listed by GNIS in Delta County, Colorado, between the towns of Hotchkiss and Crawford. An irrigation ditch across it, the Spurlin Mesa Lateral of the Crawford Clipper Ditch, dates from the 1880s and has been evaluated as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. - Spurlin family lines by state · Genealogy weak
A state-by-state guide to the main Spurlin and Spurling family lines in the United States, from colonial Virginia and North Carolina to Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Texas and Indiana, with the sources behind each link. - Spurlins in the Congressional Record · History strong
Federal congressional publications mention the Spurlin name in modern tributes and Senate nomination lists, in private pension acts for two Indiana Civil War veterans (1910 and 1914), and in 19th-century printed lists of voters, pensioners, pardons, claims and land entries. - Spurlin historical markers · History strong
Nine markers and memorials transcribed in the Historical Marker Database name a Spurlin, from a Georgia church founder of 1842 and an Alabama Masonic officer of 1852 to veterans on Confederate, World War I and Vietnam War memorials. - Places named Spurlin · Places strong
Overview of communities, landforms, streams, crossings, cemeteries and civic sites in the United States that carry the Spurlin (or closely related Spurling) name, with pointers to Spurlin historical markers and federal land records. - Spurlin research resources · Genealogy mixed
A roundup of free online tools for researching Spurlin families: collaborative trees, the Spurlin Y-DNA project, surname forums, digitized county histories and newspapers, federal land patents, cemetery and historical-marker databases, and military and African American records. - Spurlin Family History in America · History mixed
An overview of Spurlin and Spurling families in America, from colonial Virginia and New England through southern and western migration, Civil War service, and published genealogies. - Spurlin patents · Products & Brands strong
Inventors surnamed Spurlin appear on US patents from 1902 onward, including Hercules Powder Company chemist Harold M. Spurlin, vibratory-feeder engineer William V. Spurlin, tractor-implement designer William G. Spurlin, and later semiconductor, electronics and bath-fixture inventors.
References
- ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ GLO Records search: patents, name "Spurlin", results 1–100 — Bureau of Land Management — 101 results, read Sept. 2026; each card gives patentee, date, state, county, document type and accession number Government
- ↑ ↑ GLO Records search: patents, name "Spurlin", result 101 — Bureau of Land Management — page 2 of the same search Government
- ↑ Andalusia becomes the County Seat / Andalusia Railroad Depot — HMdb — Alabama Historical Association marker, 2013; lists William Spurlin among early citizens Reference
- ↑ ↑ Suspended entries of public lands — H. Ex. Doc. 13, 48th Cong., 2d Sess. (Dec. 4, 1884), Serial Set 2296 — GovInfo — p. 12: Montgomery, Ala., homestead, R. & R. No. 2917, Elizabeth Spurlin, E½ SE¼ sec. 36, T. 8, R. 17 Government
Last reviewed 2026-09-24.