Powerful Prayer:

Reverend Stephen Spurlock
Son of Jesse Spurlock, who was the brother of John Spurlock Sr. 
Our direct ancestor

POWERFUL PRAYER 
At the outbreak of the Civil War Rev. Stephen Spurlock’s sympathies were strongly Southern.  When Captain N. J. Ferguson's Company (C. S. A.) assembled at Wayne preparatory to leaving for Dixie he was too old to go either as a soldier or as Chaplain, but he knew  most, if not all of the men personally, so when the company left Wayne he went with it for a day's march.  The next morning before he left, at the request of the men, he assembled the company, and offered up a prayer for their safe return.  Captain Ferguson and other who heard the prayer bear witness to the fact that in their respective judgments it was the most wonderful prayer that ever fell from the old man's lips.  The burden of the prayer was that the Great Master and God of Battles might take and keep the men in care and return them home.  The company saw much hard service.  Many members were wounded, some captured, and many replacements sent to the company were killed, but not a single man who was present at the prayer was killed in action, and they attribute this fact to the efficacy of the prayer.

The above story is from a Spurlock History sent by Ruby Spurlock Hartz, a descendant of Stephen Spurlock to Georganna B. Spurlock in 1985.  (See the complete history in the Notes section of his father Jesse Spurlock.)
Excerpt  from Wayne County News Jan 6, 1983.  Column "Out Of The Past" by Byron T. Morris.  The following Spurlock history is taken from the 7 Jan 1871 issue of the Christian Observer.  Signed by J. C. Crooks.

"There are a few men such as Stephen Spurlock; few still who have for 66 years welded such an influence over his neighbors.  For it is to be remembered that he never lived and never labored outside of the old Guyandotte Circuit to any extent.  He was licensed to exhort, July 23, 1808, by John Sale, P.E.; licensed to preach by James Quinn, P.E. May 1809.

After learning the above facts, I asked Father Spurlock, "Do you remember when and where by whom you were ordained a Deacon?" He answered, "Do I remember, do I remember" with deep feeling; ; "Oh, yes, could I ever forget that sweet, dear, dear good man, Bishop Asbury, our first American Bishop" and then he requested his aged companion to get his Parchments.  There, carefully folded and labeled were his credentials, his license to exhort, license to preach, dated as above, his renewals of licenses, by David Young, for three or four years and his ordination papers, all in good state of preservation, showing his respect for the authority of the church.

I felt humbled while examining these ancient testimonies of faithfulness in the service of God; and more especially as I read the name of Bishop Asbury and Bishop McKendree and thought how wonderfully God had blessed their labors and in so short a time a little host became a mighty people.

I was in the presence of one of whose head these mighty men of Israel had laid their holy hand in consecration and heard from their venerable lips the solemn announcements, "take thou authority to preach the word, etc." 

Signed by J. C. Crooks
Stephen born March 19 1786, died December 31 1870, married on May 1, 1806, to Nancy Amos (born February 8, 1784, died May 1, 1872.)  He was a pioneer Methodist preacher and was performing marriages in Cabell County, West Virginia  as early as January 1813.  His deacon's orders, signed by Bishop Francis Asbury in 1815 at the last conference held by him at Lebanon, Kentucky, and his elder's which were signed by William McKendree at Lexington, Kentucky in 1821, are still in the possession of a descendant, the Rev. Arden P. Keyser of Cattlesburg.

Stephen Spurlock was assigned to the Guyandotte Circut, and preached in Guyandotte in 1816 and 1817, but his activities were confined largely to the territory now included in Cabell, Lincoln, and Wayne counties (West Virginia).  He settled on the west side of Twelve Pole, just above the old bridge at Dickson and later moved to near the mouth of Long Branch on Beech Fork.  He built a stone chapel not far from Dickson, and a second chapel, now known as the Bowen Chapel on Beech Fork near which he was buried.  

Buried in Bowen Cemetery of Wayne County.  Aged 84 years, 9 months, 12 days.   Inscription on his stone: "The path of the just is as the shinning light that shineth more and more until the perfect day"

(P.S.Stephen had a brother Burwell Spurlock who was also a powerful and famous preacher.)