Spurlins in Historic American Newspapers

Overview

Chronicling America is the Library of Congress's digitized newspaper collection. In September 2026 a search of it for "spurlin" returned 4,599 pages from newspapers across the country.^[1] Many hits are brief local items such as court notices, social columns, obituaries and advertisements. The search runs on optical character recognition (OCR) text, so it misses some misread spellings and sometimes returns pages where the name does not actually appear. Each item below was checked against the page's own OCR text.

Examples

• Louisiana, 1886. The Bossier Banner of 5 August 1886 printed the proceedings of a Democratic mass meeting of Ward 4, Bossier Parish, held at Red Land. W. J. Spurlin sat on its committee on resolutions and moved that the proceedings be sent to the Bossier and Shreveport papers.^[2]
• Tennessee, 1896. The Bolivar Bulletin of 13 November 1896 reported that Eli Spurlin had died suddenly at his home in the Eighteenth District of Hardeman County. It said he was 61, twice married, a Mason and a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, and called him "one of the best citizens" of the county.^[3] See Spurlins of Hardeman County, Tennessee.
• Indiana, 1897. Under the headline "Acted the Ghost", a wire item from Shelbyville reported that Mrs. Sarah M. Spurlin had sued Mrs. Alice P. Gerrard for $2,000 for alienating the affections of her husband, Harvey A. Spurlin. Harvey had a divorce suit pending after 21 years of marriage. The suit claimed that Mrs. Gerrard had posed as a ghost near the room where Mrs. Spurlin's 19-year-old daughter, Eliza, had died in 1891.^[4] The Kansas City Journal carried a longer version of the story from the Washington Post.^[5]
• California, 1908. The Los Angeles Herald reported that Mrs. Alice Spurlin was granted a divorce from Harvey A. Spurlin, with the couple's property at Florence to be divided equally. The report mentions her son, C. A. Gerard, which suggests that this was the Harvey A. Spurlin of the 1897 Indiana suit.^[6]
• Texas, 1909. "A Town Built in Forty Days", in the Washington Herald of 5 March 1909, described how a farm tract became the village of Spurlin, Texas, with a station on the Stephenville, North and South Texas Railway. It states that "Spurlin is named for John L. Spurlin, of Hamilton", and places the town ten miles north of Hamilton.^[7] See Spurlin, Texas.
• Kentucky, 1909. The Hopkinsville Kentuckian led its 2 November 1909 front page with the death of Rev. James Utley Spurlin, "the oldest Baptist minister in this part of Kentucky".^[8] See James Utley Spurlin.
• California, 1910. The Los Angeles Herald followed the contested divorce of De Kalb Spurlin, described as a "well known real estate dealer and home builder", and his wife, Maud M. Spurlin, which involved a musical-comedy actress.^[9] In March 1910 the judge refused a divorce to either side, finding the evidence insufficient.^[10]
• Alabama, 1929. An Associated Press item reported that Capt. J. R. S. Spurlin, the 87-year-old commander of the Samson Camp of Confederate Veterans and father of 14 children, had married a 17-year-old, the granddaughter of his former housekeeper.^[11][12]
• Washington, D.C., 1932. The Evening Star announced the marriage of the future French scholar Paul Merrill Spurlin to Alix Snowden.^[13] See Paul Merrill Spurlin.
• Illinois, 1935. Maurice Spurlin, a 32-year-old produce-company employee in Mattoon, was charged after taking an Illinois Central locomotive from the yards over Christmas. The two Associated Press reports differ on the day: one calls it a Christmas Eve joy-ride, while the other dates the wreck to Christmas Day. The engine ran onto the main line and hit a freight train, whose crew jumped to safety. He was bound over to the grand jury.^[14][15]

Using the collection

The collection is free, and researchers can search it by name, state and date range. Results can also be downloaded as JSON through the Library of Congress's API by adding fo=json to a search address.^[1] Because the full text comes from OCR, it is worth also searching likely misreadings of the name (such as "Spurlln") and checking each page image.

Additional finds in digitized newspapers

Digitized newspapers on the Internet Archive add several stories to the Chronicling America material:

• 1868, Iowa. The Daily Evening Bulletin of 4 March 1868 reported the death of pioneer Daniel Spurlin of Hardin County, Iowa. A runaway sleigh team crashed into his party as they returned from a church meeting (see the "Daniel Spurlin (Hardin County, Iowa, pioneer)" entry).^[16]
• 1907, Kentucky. On 14 November 1907 the Hopkinsville Kentuckian ran a long profile of Rev. James Utley Spurlin, "the oldest Baptist preacher but one in state of Kentucky" (see the "James Utley Spurlin (Kentucky Baptist preacher)" entry).^[17]
• 1913, Georgia. The Atlanta Georgian's list of the Leo Frank trial jury venire included "O. L. Spurlin, 155 Lawton street." The next day's report said O. L. Spurlin was "struck by defense" during jury selection.^[18][19]
• 1964, Alabama. The Elba Clipper (Coffee County, Alabama) has been digitized a year at a time. Its 1964 volume includes local items about Spurlin families, such as a "Spurlin Family Enjoys Holiday Dinner" report in the 31 December issue (see the "Spurlins of Coffee County, Alabama" entry).^[20]