My Genealogy Hound

James A. Spurlock, attorney at law at Versailles, Mo., has been a practicing lawyer of the place since 1866. He was born in Tennessee, Cannon County, in 1827, his parents being Col. Josiah and Leah (Manier) Spurlock, the former born in Virginia and the latter in Kentucky. The father was an extensive planter and cattle dealer, which occupations he followed until his death in 1854, at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife died in 1850. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 under Gen. Jackson, and also served under that general in the Indian War, being at one time one of his bodyguards. Drury Spurlock, his father, was born in Virginia and was a Revolutionary soldier under Gen. Morgan, and served throughout the entire war. James A. Spurlock, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools, afterward graduating from a higher institution of learning near McMinnville, in 1845, after which he entered the office of Judge Marchbanks and Chancellor Ridley as a law student, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. He then engaged in practicing his profession at Gainesborough, Tenn., remaining there until 1858, when he moved to Marshfield, Mo. In 1866 he came to Versailles, where he has since been a successful law practitioner. In 1852 he wedded Miss Clara Talbott, a native of Tennessee, by whom he has the following children: Martha, wife of C. B. Dyer; Haywood, Josiah, Belle, wife of Dr. A. R. Kieffer; Nancy, wife of Lewis Lumpee; Sidney, James B., Gabriella, Paul and Susan A. In 1884 his wife died, at the age of fifty-four years, leaving ten children and seventeen grandchildren. Her father, Haywood Talbott, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and her grandfather, Thomas Talbott, was a Revolutionary soldier and served with Francis Marion in the Carolinas. Mr. Spurlock is a Republican in politics and has served as county treasurer since coming to Morgan County. He and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.