Owen and Amanda Spurlin Family of Mississippi

Background

A family history blog, based on an account written by Clara Spurlin in 1980, tells the story of Owen and Amanda Spurlin^[1]. It says Owen was born on a plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi. His father was the white plantation owner, Mr. Spurlin, and his mother was an enslaved Black woman^[1]. Owen and Amanda married in 1871 while working as sharecroppers on the McGee farm^[1].

Landownership

According to the family account, in 1899 the couple bought land near Funnygusher Creek, about eight miles from Lexington, Mississippi. A white farm owner named Sam Bailey had encouraged them to buy it^[1]. Black landownership in the Deep South at the turn of the century was a considerable achievement, and the family remembers the purchase that way.

Later years

The blog says a severe storm in 1912 lifted the Spurlin house off its foundation and destroyed a local Holiness church. Owen rebuilt with help from friends and his son-in-law Louis Randall, a carpenter^[1]. The couple raised 14 children. Amanda, whom the grandchildren called "Mother," hosted yearly family gatherings until her death in 1956^[1].

Family blog and reunions

Descendants keep a WordPress site, the "Spurlin Family Blog — The family of Owen & Amanda". It has posts from about 2012 to 2020 on family history, Reconstruction-era records, Tuskegee Airmen heritage and memorial notices.^[2] The reunions go back further than the blog's posts. The blog has a page titled "2010: San Francisco" that embeds the newsletter for that year's reunion.^[3] The two-page newsletter, vol. 16, no. 1 (September 2009), was uploaded to Scribd by an account named "SpurlinFamily". Published by the San Francisco reunion committee, it announced a Spurlin family reunion in San Francisco for July 16–18, 2010.^[4]

In 2012 the blog announced a reunion for descendants of Owen and Amanda Johnson-Spurlin. It was held July 20–22, 2012, at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Tinley Park, Illinois, near Chicago, with a banquet on July 21.^[5] A July 2012 post on a personal blog reproduces a welcome speech from that reunion. It celebrates the descendants of Owen and Amanda Spurlin and describes the family's journey "from slavery to success".^[6]

Sources and caveats

This account rests on family tradition and oral history: Clara Spurlin's 1980 narrative and recollections of descendants. The blog does not cite archival documents^[1]. Holmes County records such as Freedmen's Bureau files, deeds and marriage records are the usual way to check accounts like this one.