David Spurlock Jr. was the son of David Spurlock Sr. and Susannah Hancock, he was about 12 years old when his family moved from Floyd Co, Ky to Ark., first settling on the Mississippi River.

David liked to tell the story about one day when it got completely dark and he hurried to get home. Soon it became light again he found that it had been a full eclipse of the sun at 3:00 pm.* [Not sure the date of this eclipse. There was a total eclipse Nov, 30, 1834 that started in northern Georgia and moved through Memphis, Tn and into northern Arkansas. David would have been 16 years old then.]

In 1838 his father was in Mooney township, Phillips County, Ark.

There is a story that David married first in Crittendon Co, Ark. and had a baby, and his wife and baby died about 1840 of malaria. The story makes sense because at that time the eastern part of Arkansas was swampy and not very fit for living. Many settlers moved farther west to the hill country of Arkansas where there was plenty of grassland for farming and lots of fish and wild game.

In 1840 he was 22 and living with his father in Crittendon Co, Ark. "In Crittenden County, David Spurlock, Jr. cut cord wood and sold it for fuel to the steamboats that went up and down the Mississippi River. He knew that one particular steamboat had General Andrew Jackson on it, and he wanted it to stop and buy cordwood from him so he could meet his hero. When it looked like the steamboat was going by without stopping he began to holler and jump up and down and point to his pile of cordwood. The Captain brought his boat over, bought the cordwood, and David Jr. got to meet Andrew Jackson".* Perhaps this occurred in early Jan, 1840. Jan 8, 1840 Andrew Jackson arrived in New Orleans to join in a 25th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, Jan 8, 1815. Jackson was president 1829-1837.

In about 1846, David Sr. moved with the whole Spurlock family to Lawrence County, Arkansas around the area of King's Mill (now in Sharp County).
He was 28 years old when he married July 8, 1847 to 15-year-old Mary Morris Estes, the daughter of Burris Estes Jr. & Martha (Morris).

The Spurlocks attended the Liberty Hill Methodist Church at Liberty Hill, Ark.

During the Civil War David owned a grist mill at King's Mill. Sometime between 1862-64 David had a run-in with Union solders. The Yankees came by the mill regularly and forced David to supply food for them and their horses. One Sunday David and Mary (and presumably their first 7 children) were on their way home from church at Corinth when they were confronted by Union soldiers at the mouth of Little Creek. David was taken by the Yankees and held for a month before they released him.* David was about 45 at the time, but he had not joined the army. His daughter, Rhoda said many years later that her father was very much against slavery.

David was a farmer and lived the last of his life in Sharp County, Ark. (formed in 1868). Though he was from Kentucky he was opposed to slavery. His wife brought two slaves from her family with her when she married (in 1847). But this wasn't unusual. People often felt that they couldn't help being a part of the system even if they didn't agree with it.

Mary died in Sept 1882 at the age of 50. May 13, 1883 David married (3rd) to Matilda Clementine Smith Nance. Matilda died in 1892 and in 1900 David was living with his daughter, Katherine's family. David died in 1904 and all three were buried in Shiloh Cemetery in Sharp Co, Ark.

Other pictures of the family.

David and Mary had 85 grandchildren!
All 10 of his & Mary's children are listed below.

*from: "A History of Liberty Hill and King's Mill", published in the Sharp County Journal, May 1994