Samuel J. W. Spurgeon

Samuel J. W. Spurgeon
Born
Samuel James Wheeler Spurgeon

October 25, 1861
Sullivan County, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedDeath date unknown, sometime after 1897
EducationKnoxville College
OccupationsMinister, publisher, editor, blacksmith

Samuel James Wheeler Spurgeon (October 25, 1861 – death date unknown) was an American minister, a publisher, and editor. He founded and edited the Christian Worker; and was a contributing editor of The Messenger, a weekly published in Lexington, Kentucky.

Life and career

Samuel James Wheeler Spurgeon was born on October 25, 1861, in Sullivan County, Tennessee.[1] After the Civil war ended his parents moved to Knoxville, Tennessee when he was a young child, where he worked at Knoxville Iron Works as a water boy.[1] He attended a district school where he learned to read and write, followed by studies at a public school.[1] Spurgeon attended Knoxville College.[1]

In 1883, Spurgeon was ordained as a minister in Knoxville, Tennessee.[1] He was of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) faith.[2] Spurgeon worked as a minister at the Constitution Street Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky (now East Second Street Christian Church of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)).[3] He also worked for many years as a minister at a Christian church in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.[1][3]

He founded and edited the Christian Worker; and was a contributing editor of The Messenger, a weekly published in Lexington, Kentucky.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Johnson, William Decker (1897). "XXIV. Samuel James Wheeler Spurgeon". Biographical Sketches of Prominent Negro Men and Women of Kentucky. pp. 44–45.
  2. ^ Burkett, Randall K.; Burkett, Nancy Hall; Gates Jr., Henry Louis (1991). Black Biography, 1790-1950: K-Z. Chadwyck-Healey. p. 444. ISBN 978-0-89887-085-5.
  3. ^ a b c "Spurgeon, Samuel J. W." Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA). University of Kentucky Libraries. Retrieved December 2, 2025.