City Directories and History: Odes M. Spurlin and family seems to have arrived in Sharon about 1910 since he and his wife were charter members of the Methodist Church. The Sharon Sewing Club sponsored by the church was chaired by Mrs. Spurlin and she was active in the Ladies Missionary Society. Spurlin’s arrival in Sharon may have been that he was working for a railroad company and was employed as a depot agent. In 1919 he purchased a home on Shelby Street (now Woodlawn Street) from W. Lon Plexico for $3,000 and began a remodeling project which he finished later in the year. In 1923, he was elected Senior Warden at the local Masonic Lodge, in the Palmetto Lodge No. 289. Though doubtful, it was said that Spurlin owned the first radio in the town having purchased it in 1924. In the post WWI depression cotton prices declined; in 1922 corn and
cotton crops fell short. Agent Spurlin reported that not more than 400 bales of cotton had been shipped out of Sharon by October compared to the 1,000 bales shipped out that month a year ago. Spurlin had been elected Mayor of Sharon by 1922 and in November he signed an ordinance authorizing a property tax of 20 mils to be payable between December and February with a seven percent penalty. From 1927 to 1929 Spurlin served the town as Clerk and Treasurer.
As the Great Depression deepened in 1932, Spurlin reported that shipments of fertilizer to Sharon was “the shortest and skimpiest” in sixteen years. He recalled receiving more in two weeks the year before. Spurlin’s son, Odes Jr. was an aviator and was injured in 1934 when his aircraft crashed into a cotton field near the Yorkville Airport. He went to his parents’ home in Sharon to recuperate. When he was well enough he was hired as a manager for a Rock Hill filling station. In 1937 Spurlin decided he wanted the office of Mayor, but he was unsuccessful in unseating incumbent William L. Hill, Jr. Still working as agent at the depot he received seven carloads of tar in 1938. This huge supply was used to pave Highway 91 (now Highway 49) from Sharon through Bullock’s Creek. [Contributed by J.L. West]
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