William Dexter Spurlin (Presbyterian minister)
Rev. William Dexter Spurlin (1860–1935), an Alabama-born Southern Presbyterian minister, served churches at Cleveland, Tennessee, Demopolis, Alabama, Monroe, Louisiana, and Laurel, Mississippi.
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William Dexter Spurlin (July 1860 – 6 January 1935), usually named in print as Rev. W. D. Spurlin, D.D., was a Southern Presbyterian minister. He served churches in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.[1][2]
Education and early charges
His Find a Grave memorial gives his birth as July 1860 at Camden, Wilcox County, Alabama, and his death as 6 January 1935 at Selma, Alabama. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Demopolis.[1] The memorial transcribes a biography from the World's Fair issue of the Monroe, Louisiana, Evening News of 15 May 1893. It says he spent two years at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, graduated from Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia in 1883, and graduated from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia in 1886. His first charge was at Cleveland, Tennessee, and his second at Demopolis, Alabama, where he married in November 1889.[1]
Monroe, Louisiana
According to the 1893 sketch, Spurlin became pastor of the Presbyterian church in Monroe in 1889. By 1893 its membership had nearly tripled, to about 100.[1] Presbyterianism in North Louisiana to 1929, compiled by B. Charles Bell, says that when the Synod of Mississippi, meeting at Columbus in November 1890, set up an executive committee for synodical evangelism, Rev. W. D. Spurlin and elder F. P. Stubbs, both of Monroe, were Red River Presbytery's representatives on it.[2] The book also quotes one minister's account of a church house built at Trinity in 1889, "which Bro. Spurlin dedicated for us". Its table of presbytery meetings names "Rev. W. D. Spurlin, D. D." against sessions in 1892, 1901 and 1903.[2]
Mississippi and Alabama
In August 1896 the Southern Herald of Liberty, Mississippi, announced that he would preach at the town's Presbyterian church. It said he would also give young people a Bible lecture "illustrated with candles".[3] In April 1909 Meridian Presbytery in Mississippi received him from Tuscaloosa Presbytery. That November it reported his installation as pastor at Laurel.[4][5] In April 1911 he asked Meridian Presbytery to dissolve his pastoral relationship with the Laurel church. The church concurred and the presbytery granted the request. The Hattiesburg News reported that he was going to Tuscaloosa Presbytery in Alabama.[6] In March 1920 an advertisement in the Covington Leader of Tennessee for a patent remedy called Ferraline quoted a testimonial from "Rev. Wm. D. Spurlin, of Demopolis, Ala." The advertisement called him "one of the well and favorably known Presbyterian ministers of the South".[7]
He was born in Camden, the Alabama town where the jeweler W. F. Spurlin lived. The sources consulted here do not say whether the two were related.
See also
- W. F. Spurlin (Camden, Alabama jeweler) · History strong
William F. Spurlin (c. 1823–1915) was a jeweler in Camden, Alabama, and a Confederate veteran of the 53rd Alabama Partisan Rangers. His 1913 Confederate Veteran account of the last issue of Confederate treasury notes is still discussed by currency historians. - Spurlin clergy and ministries · Culture mixed
A roundup of ministers, preachers and religious workers surnamed Spurlin, from nineteenth-century Baptist and Presbyterian pastors to present-day ministries, drawn from church histories, denominational records and local news. - Spurlins in Historic American Newspapers · History strong
The Library of Congress's Chronicling America collection returns thousands of newspaper pages for the Spurlin name, from Louisiana politics in 1886 and an Indiana 'ghost' lawsuit in 1897 to a Texas railroad town named for John L. Spurlin and a runaway locomotive in 1935. - Notable Spurlins · People strong
An index of notable people surnamed Spurlin, with related Spurling-surname figures listed separately as variants. - 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.
References
- ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ Rev William Dexter Spurlin (1860–1935) — Find a Grave Memorial — transcribes a biography from the World's Fair issue of the Monroe (La.) Evening News, 15 May 1893 Genealogy
- ↑ ↑ ↑ B. Charles Bell (compiler), Presbyterianism in North Louisiana to 1929 (1930) — Internet Archive Book
- ↑ The Southern Herald (Liberty, Miss.), 14 August 1896, p. 3 — Chronicling America, Library of Congress News
- ↑ "Meridian Presbytery" — The Presbyterian of the South, 21 April 1909, p. 31 — Chronicling America News
- ↑ "Meridian Presbytery" — The Presbyterian of the South, 17 November 1909, p. 23 — Chronicling America News
- ↑ "The Presbytery Has Adjourned" — The Hattiesburg News, 14 April 1911, p. 1 — Chronicling America News
- ↑ Advertisement quoting "Rev. Wm. D. Spurlin, of Demopolis, Ala." — The Covington Leader (Covington, Tenn.), 18 March 1920, p. 2 — Chronicling America News
Last reviewed 2026-09-24.