Pg 3 24

         DAVID HURLEY, deceased. Among the highly respected pioneers of Louisa county none deserves more honorable mention than the subject of this sketch. He was born near Camden, N. J., about 1793, and his father, who was of Scotch descent, was an earnest patriot and bore a conspicuous part in the War of the Revolution. Our subject served an apprenticeship to the blacksmith’s trade, and removed to Champaign County, Ohio, during the early settlement of that region. After working at his trade in that county for a few years, he gave up blacksmithing and engaged in farming and stock-raising. Later he became a stock-dealer and drover, buying horses and cattle, which he would drive to Philadelphia or Baltimore to market.

About the year 1814, in Champaign County, Ohio, Mr. Hurley was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Downs, a lady of good education, possessed of superior mental attainments and many excellencies of character. Mrs. Hurley was a native of New Jersey, and ten children were born of their union, four sons and six daughters, who were all born in Ohio, and came to Iowa with their parents in 1840. John, who was a physician, married Miss Jane Heron, and both are now deceased, he having died June 20, 1880; Aaron D. married Miss Sarah Drake, daughter of John Drake, a pioneer of Wapello of 1838, and resides in that city; Huldah, wife of John R. Springsteen, died in 1887; Elizabeth, wife of Lewis Kinsey, resides at Anamosa, Iowa; Sarah wedded John H. Bragg, of St. Louis, Mo.; Rebecca is the wife of L. L. B. Miller, of Beardstown, Ill.; James S. married Martha N. Garrett, of Ohio, and is an attorney of Wapello; Angeline became the wife of Harvey K. Robinson, and her death occurred in 1868; David Crocket married Sarah Hones, and resides in Nodaway County, Mo.; Mary L., the youngest, died in childhood.

On coming to Louisa County in 1840 with his family, Mr. Hurley settled in the township of Florence, where he was engaged in farming until his death, which occurred March 3, 1846. His good wife survived him, and died at Wapello, Aug. 3, 1872. She was brought up under the influences of religious training in the Baptist Church, and lived a faithful Christian life, training her large family of children to habits of usefulness, honesty and morality. Mr. Hurley was reared under the auspices of the Society of Friends or Quakers, and always retained some of the peculiarities of that sect. He was a Whig in political sentiment, and while a strong partisan was never an office-seeker. He was chosen one of the first Assessors of Louisa County, . . .

Pg 327

. . . and served several years as Justice of the Peace in Ohio. Ever a strong anti-slavery man, he predicted the downfall of that institution at no distant day. He was made a Mason at Urbana, Ohio, and was one of the charter members of Wapello Lodge No. 5, the first Masonic lodge instituted in Iowa under the authority of the Grand Lodge of the State. When the lodge was organized he was chosen Senior Deacon, in which position he was a superior officer, and was retained therein during the remainder of his life. Mr. Hurley was a man of superior mental force, cool and deliberate in judgment, positive in his convictions, and while naturally stern and strict in the management of his family, he was always just and kind.