The name Spruill and its variations of spelling was a name of long-standing in Scotland as early as 1294 AD.
One of the first Spruills of record to come to America was Godfrey Spruill who received a patent of 341 acres in James City County, Virginia in October 1864. He also received a grant of 640 acres on Scuppernong River in Terrell County NC on 6/25/1704. He was one of the earliest physicians in North Carolina.
Gabriel Spruill is thought to be the earliest Spruill living in Carroll County. He was born around 1808 in Abbeville South Carolina and married Susan Mann on 11/20/1834. They came to Carroll County in 1844-45.
Several Spruills fought in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Gabriel had five sons who fought for the Confederacy, only one survived. Zachariah, 3rd son of Gabriel, served in Co. C, 56th Georgia Infantry, was wounded, captured at Champion Hill, exchanged and died in a Petersburg, VA hospital on 7/29/1863. He married Susan Stephenson, born 1/2/1844. The only child of Zach and Susan was John Thomas Spruill, born on 8/3/1861, and married Martha (“Mattie”) Worley, born 12/14/1864. She was the daughter of Captain Columbus “Lum" Worley, born 8/21/1840 in Dahlonega, Ga., and “Lizzie” Barnes born 8/27/1844. Captain “Lum” served in Company D, 52nd Georgia Infantry.
John Marvin Spruill was the fifth child of John Thomas and “Mattie” Worley. He was born in Carroll County near Roopville 2/1/1891 and married Ruth Huddleston, born 7/11/1907, in Carroll County, on 3/30/1924 in Carroll County.
They had three children, Evelyn Azilee (Polly), Bonnie Jeanne and Dudley Darrow. Marvin, died 7/27/72 and Ruth 6/27/1966 both buried in Arlington Memorial in Atlanta.
Marvin served with the Marine Corps during World War I, attended Rhinehart College and Emory at Oxford, was employed by the civil engineering firm, Swift & Co. in Atlanta for several years before purchasing land in the Smithfield community adjacent to his father’s. He became a farmer and leader of the community.
He was an early believer in education and was active in the promotion of school consolidation in Carroll County with Smithfield School being consolidated from Hill Crest and High Point Schools. He was in charge of construction of the rock building known as Smithfield School completed in 1939. He was the first person, in conjunction with the Carroll County Board of Education, to purchase and own a school bus, which affording students a ride to school for the first time.
Next to education, he loved music. He was well known for “leading” gospel songs at “All Day Singings” and attended these at churches for miles around where people also enjoyed delicious “dinners on the ground.”
He engineered the building of the dam at Tanner’s lake and many other lakes in the area. He believed that everyone should leave a monument when they were gone and one of his greatest was the bags of food he gave to people less fortunate than he during the depression. Many of those gave tribute to this at his passing.
His daughter Bonnie Jeanne married Hugh W, (Bill) Barrow the son of Hugh Witt and Virginia Trammell on 7/31/1946 in Bowdon. Their children are: Hugh, JR, a medical doctor of Spartanburg, SC; Lew Spruill, a lawyer in Columbus; Ann Barrow Harris, Director of Medical Science for U.C.B. Pharmacals in Atlanta; and Martha Rebecca, an anesthetist at the University of Texas Hospital in Galveston.
Photo Caption: John Marvin Spruill U.S. Marine Corps, WW I
Bonnie Jeanne Spruill Barrow
124 Manor Way
Carrollton, GA 30117
770-830-7763
bonnbill@msn.com