BURWELL SPURLOCK:
PIONEER METHODIST CIRCUIT RIDER,  PASTOR AND PREACHER
Wayne Co. WV

     
Burwell Spurlock was born in Montgomery county, Virginia, May 10, 
1790.  In infancy he was brought to Kentucky by his parents, who 
settled in Bourbon county.  In his early childhood, however, they 
again changed their location, and settled in the Green Bottom, on 
the Ohio River, on the Virginia side.
     
Young Spurlock grew without the advantages of education, beyond 
the limits of his own home, having gone to school only six months.
     
In the spring of 1812, in Cabell county, Virginia, he was happily 
converted, having joined the Church a short time previous under 
the ministry of James Quinn.
     
Believing it to be his duty to preach the gospel, he looked with 
many hopes and fears to the time when he might devote himself to 
his work.  In 1818, with Charles Elliott, Leroy Swormstedt, and 
others, he applied for admission into the Ohio Conference, and 
was received on trial.  His appointment for the first two years 
was to the Guyandotte Circuit.  From that rugged field we trace 
him, in 1820, to the city of Maysville (KY), where a station 
had just been formed, to which he was appointed.  In 1821, he 
was stationed in Lexington, and returned to Guyandotte in 1822, 
and located at the close of the year.
     
. . . The numerical strength of the Church in Maysville at the 
time Mr. Spurlock became the pastor cannot now be ascertained, 
as the numbers in Society at that point were reported at the 
Conference of 1820 with the Limestone Circuit.  In 1821, at the 
close of the year, he reported one hundred and forty-two white, 
and thirty colored members.  From that period Methodism continued 
to increase, accumulating additional strength each year. . .
     
We cannot but regret that any circumstances should have rendered it necessary for Burwell Spurlock to retire from pastoral work.  Possessing talents of the highest order, whether he appears for the defense of the doctrines or the polity of the Church, he wielded an influence that was felt beyond his own Communion.  No one, however, regretted this step more than he.  He loved the duties, the enjoyments, the labors, of the pastor, and had enlisted in the work for life, but other obligations were upon him.  Before he entered the ministry, and even previous to his conversion, he had married.  A family was growing up around him, and the meager salary he was receiving was inadequate to their support.  The largest amount that had been paid him for a year's service was one hundred and fifty dollars, and on so small a sum, with a wife and four children, he could not subsist.  The path of duty to him seemed plain, and painful as was the step, the obligations of home required him to take it.
     He settled in Wayne county, Virginia, in the bounds of the circuit he had traveled, where he still resides, and where for nearly fifty years his name has been a tower of strength.  Through his ministry many hundreds have been brought into the fold of Christ, and in all that mountain region his name is a household word.  Although eighty years of age, he is still able to preach, and is one of the best readers we have known.  For eleven years he has been afflicted with palsy.  His eyes are black, his forehead high, his hair an iron-gray;  his conversational powers superior, and his enunciation clear and distinct.  He speaks with unwavering confidence of his hope of eternal life, and calmly and serenely contemplates the joys that await him. 


MOA, UM
Redford, A. H., 1818-1884.  The History of Methodism in Kentucky, 3 v.  Nashville, Tennessee, Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1870.  pgs.  75-78, 503.