Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/506

 378

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

laski. MriJ^inia, is a descendant of an old X'irginia family of English ancestry. The family name is English, or Saxon, meaning a grove, wood, thicket, or vineyard, or a per- son living in such a locality, and is used as a prefix or affix to many English names. The Hurst are of one of the most ancient and numerous families of England, and have borne coats-of-arms.

The original home of the Hurst family in America was in Shenandoah county, Vir- ginia, whence Absalom Hurst, with his fam- ily, removed to Little Reed Island creek and New river, in what is now Pulaski county, during the early settlement of Southwest X'irginia. His son John was father of Thomas Hurst, who lived at what is now known as Rich Hill. Pulaski county, Thomas llurst married Jemima Breeding, sister to William Hreeding, the father of William W. Breeding, later living east of Allisonia, and then near the present home of Ingram Hurst, where he died ; his unmarked grave is in the pine thicket on Spencer Breeding Hill, near Bethel Church. His children, all now deceased, were : Allen, of whom fur- ther ; \\ esley, William. Calvin, Matilda Nes- ter, Elizabeth, wife of Ximrod Whittaker ; Rhoda, wife of James Stone ; Nancy, wife of James Crowell.

Allen Hurst, son of Thomas and Jemima (Breeding) Hurst, was born March 2, 1825, at Rich Hill. Pulaski county, Virginia. He married, July 20, 185 1, Nancy Cook, born in 1831. near the "old Paper Mill," Pulaski county, and who was of full German or Dutch descent. Besides two sisters — Eliza- beth Deaver. and Mary Kersey (wife of Rev. James Kersey), she had three brothers — Alexander, Henry and George, who mani- fested a roving disposition ; teaching on the way as a means of income, they traveled over the United States, and wandered to Australia and other foreign countries, los- ing themselves to their home people. Im- mediately after his marriage, Allen Hurst, with ax on shoulder, and with his young and industrious wife, went out into the vir- gin forest at the foot of Max mountain (a spur of the IMue Ridge), in Hiawassee dis- trict. Pulaski county, and. felling the trees, soon had a comfortal:)le hewn log house. They began life without a penny to buy a foot of land, Init soon owned their home, and, clearing the mountain slope and foot- hills to the brink of New river to the north.

finally owned about one hundred and fifty acres of land, one of the largest and best farms in that section, with a splendid seven- room weatherboarded house, and ample barns, granaries and outbuildings. In re- ligious faith Allen Hurst was a most un- compromising and zealous Primitive or Old School Baptist, and his wife late in life united with the same church. He is in a large measure responsible for the existence of Bethel Church, on "Spencer Breeding Hill," not far away. But few times did he ever go outside his native county, and then only to buy cattle or market wool, and per- haps a trip "to Lynchburg town, to take his tobacco down ;" and his wife was never outside the bounds of her native county. In 1 86 1 Allen Hurst went to war. He and his Ijrother Calvin belonged to Company B, Forty-fifth X^irginia Regiment, under Colo- nel l^rown, Lieutenant-Colonel Harmon, Adjutant Burns, and were in the Piedmont fight. They were captured June 5, 1864, and imprisoned at Camp Morton, near In- dianapolis ; Calvin was exchanged in March, 1865, and went to Richmond; Allen was held prisoner until after the surrender. A\'ith Allen in the army, his wife Nancy, true to the heroism displayed in her girlhood, though now the mother of five little chil- dren (the eldest only nine years old) and the prospective mother of another, she at once assumed personal management of the farm, following the plow, turning the sod for the coming crop, which she was to cul- tivate with her own hands. She would take her nursing babe to the field and place it on a pallet or quilt while she went the rounds of the field. Thus she not only provided for her six children during the war, but main- tained the farm in good shape. All her life long she displayed the same energy and activity, and was known throughout the community for these traits and for her mother-wit and sterling character. Allen Hurst knew nothing but straightforward honesty, and his word was as good as his bond, anywhere in the county. He died January 7, 1904. his wife having died April 15, 1899, and they were buried in the Hurst l)urying ground, on the farm.

Children : Mary Jane, born August 4. 1852. wife of Leander Southern ; Matilda, born October 2}^, 1853. died July i. 1894. wife of Uriah Houston Southern ; Reason Vinceton, or "Dump." l)orn September 15. 1855; Char-