Daniel Spurlin (Hardin County, Iowa, pioneer)

Origins and migration

The History of Hardin County, Iowa (1883) says Daniel Spurlin was born in North Carolina on 1 March 1807.^[1] A later county history, Past and Present of Hardin County, says he was a native of Yadkin County, North Carolina.^[2] His Find a Grave memorial gives his birth as 1 April 1807 in what is now Yadkin County (then Surry) and names his parents as Jeremiah and Cloey Spurlin.^[3] The memorial also notes that the age on his old gravestone, 63 years, 10 months and 26 days, would put his birth in 1804, and that the same age appears on the order receipt for the stone in his probate file.^[3]

Find a Grave names his first wife as Delpha Riley.^[3] In 1841, according to the 1883 history, he married Miss A. J. (Ann Jane) Swift, a Pennsylvania native whose family had moved to Holmes County, Ohio, and then to Owen County, Indiana.^[1][3] The memorial places him in Owen County in 1840 and in Mercer County, Illinois, in 1850.^[3] The 1883 history says the family left Indiana for Mercer County in 1846. In spring 1851 they came to Hardin County "with teams over roads almost impassable" and moved into a 16-by-18-foot claim shanty.^[1] Past and Present adds that he drove his sheep and cattle to Iowa, taking three months on the road, and that he was the first blacksmith in the area.^[2]

Death and burial

Both county histories say Spurlin died after a runaway team hit his party, but they disagree on the year: the 1883 book says 1869, while the later history says 1867.^[1][2] A report printed in the Daily Evening Bulletin on 4 March 1868 describes the accident. A string of sleighs was coming back from meetings at Lockard's school-house when one team broke loose and crashed into the sleigh Spurlin was driving, throwing it against a tree. He died after "six hours of intense suffering," aged about sixty.^[4] The report adds that he had lived in the county since before it was organized.^[4] His Find a Grave memorial gives the date as 27 January 1868, at Union, Hardin County, which agrees with the newspaper's year.^[3] He is buried in Hauser Cemetery at Whitten, Hardin County.^[3]

Family

According to the 1883 history, Daniel and A. J. Spurlin had nine children. One son, William Swift M. Spurlin, served in the 9th Iowa Cavalry and was killed on duty at Ashland Station during the Red River Expedition.^[1] Past and Present includes sketches of sons Samuel R. Spurlin (born 1851 in Mercer County, Illinois) and Andrew Spurlin, both farmers in Union Township. It mentions other children who settled in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.^[2] The two books disagree on some details, including the birth year of Daniel's wife.^[1][2]

The youngest son, Daniel F. Spurlin, was born on 30 November 1855 and spent his whole life on the farm where he was born. He married Etta Adams of Liscomb on 4 July 1881.^[5] On 12 November 1914 the Marshalltown Evening Times-Republican reported that "D. S. Spurlin", a farmer living three miles east of Union, had been found dead in bed that morning at the age of 59, and that he had recently bought an automobile business in Union for his sons.^[6] The paper's report of the funeral names him as Daniel F. Spurlin, the youngest son of Daniel Spurlin, who "was a pioneer of Hardin county, and a famous blacksmith in the early days."^[5]