When John Louis Bourland was born in 1834, in Alabama, United States, his father, John Bacon Bourland, was 29 and his mother, Nancy Hardwick, was 28. He married Mary Virginia Berger on 13 April 1862. He lived in Inyo, California, United States in 1880 and Judicial Township 1, Inyo, California, United States in 1900. He died on 11 June 1905, in Van Buren, Crawford, Arkansas, United States, at the age of 71, and was buried in Van Buren, Crawford, Arkansas, United States.