F. M. HURDLE

HURDLE

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 20:38:56

F. M. HURDLE, another one of the enterprising and well-to-do citizens of Adams county, Iowa, was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, in July, 1829. His father, William V. Hurdle, M. D., was of
Scotch ancestry and born in Ohio, the son of pioneers of the Buckeye State. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Kinney, was born in Pennsylvania, the daughter of William and Mary (Mahan) Kinney, also of Pennsylvania. W. V. Hurdle was an influential and popular physician in Muskingum county, Ohio, for many years. He moved to Illinois in 1855, and died in 1863. F. M. Hurdle was reared in his native county, receiving a good education in the schools at Zanesville. He was for a time engaged in the mercantile business at Dresden. In 1852 he came west and settled at La Ilarpe, Hancock county, Illinois, where he did a mercantile business. The years 1861 and ’62 he spent in Chicago, engaged in a commission business, and from there went to Sparland, Illinois, where he conducted a dry-goods establishment. In 1870 he was appointed United States Inspector of the Internal Revenue Department, and served as Government Gauger at Peoria, Illinois, for fifteen years.

In 1888 Mr. Hurdle came to Iowa and located on his farm in Carl township, Adams county, which he had purchased in 1883. It contains 280 acres, and is one of the best farms in the county. His beautiful residence is furnished with taste and elegance, and is surrounded by attractive and well-kept grounds. A grove of fourteen acres, a fine orchard, an abundance of small fruits, commodious barns, modern windmill, well-cultivated fields, and broad pastures dotted over with fine horses and cattle—all these combine to make the Hurdle farm one of the most desirable ones in Adams county.

Mr. Hurdle was married in La Harpe, Illinois, in 1855, to Miss Letecia Barr, a lady of much culture and refinement, born in Breckenridge county, Kentucky, of a highly respected family. Her parents, Adam and Hannah (Beauchamp) Barr, were both natives of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Hurdle have had two sons born to them: O. V. Hurdle, who holds an important and trusted position in a bank at Clarinda, Page county, Iowa, and Logan E., born in Chicago in 1863, and died at the age of five years at Sparland, Illinois. O. Y. Hurdle married Miss Mollie Mahan, and has three children: Frank, Charlie and Leonard.