HURD, Caleb, of Adams Co OH

PLEASE HELP:

If you are descended from Caleb Hurd and have taken an autosomal DNA test, please let me know if you have any shared matches with these surnames: Echols, Kittle, Ashcraft, Buskirk.

This writer has DNA matches at AncestryDNA with descendants of Caleb and Martha’s children, John, William, Charles T, and Ruth. Autosomal DNA match shows a probable link to Samuel Hurd of Stratford, CT (d 1782), or his son Joseph Hurd, of Onondaga Co NY (d 1810), and to descendants of the Monroe Co OH Hurds.

Caleb Hurd was born before 1775, according to his 1820 census, although he was possibly at least ten years younger than that. He died soon after his son was born in 1821.[1] His surviving children’s 1880 censuses do not agree on his birthplace.[2] His widow’s 1830 census has not been located; her 1840 and 1850 censuses show her still resident in the same township in Adams Co.

Our family’s tie to Adams Co OH is the death certificate of one of Nancy (Morris) Armstrong’s sisters. When Margaret (Morris) Kent died in 1912,[3] the informant on her death certificate gave the birth date and place for her father, George Morris, as 1790, Lexington KY, and the birth date and place for her mother, Elizabeth “Herd,” as 1807, Adams Co OH.

There were two widows with their names spelled Herd, not Hurd, in Sprigg Township, Adams Co OH in 1850, Mary, 36, and Martha, 60.

First, Mary (Hutson) Herd was the widow of William Hurd, who died in Feb 1841; this is verified in the death certificate of their son. In the 1840 census they were in Adams Co OH: 11001…/20001.[4] In 1850, Mary’s father, Major Hutson, was residing with another daughter’s family in the next-door household, mistakenly listed as another Herd household.

Second, Martha was the widow of Caleb and the mother-in-law of Mary.

In 1820, this family was in Adams Co OH, p 20: Caleb Hurd, 200001/31010; there were two sons under ten and four daughters. One other son may have been working with other families, or may not belong to this family.

There was a marriage in Adams Co OH, 11 Dec 1817, between Mintey Hurd and James Clure. I have not found this couple in later records. She may have been a sister.[5]

Martha (Oursler) Hurd was born in Pennsylvania in 1790,[6] a daughter of Charles and Martha (McKinley) Oursler. In 1840, she was in Sprigg Township, Adams Co OH, Martha Herd: 0001/00002001. The son born after 1820 was John.

The Oursler family was in Adams County as early as 1800, but it is unclear when Caleb Hurd arrived. He married Martha Oursler, ca 1806.

They may have been in Pendleton Co KY[7], or elsewhere in Kentucky, in 1830 for these reasons:

1. No one named Hurd can be found in Sprigg Twp, Adams Co OH.
2. Minerva Hurd was born in 1830 in Pendleton Co, Kentucky.
3. “Calup” Herd was born ca 1826 somewhere, possibly in Pendleton Co KY.
4. Major Hudson was in Pendleton Co KY in 1830.
5. Caleb Herd married Jane Pew in KY in 1832.

If not in Kentucky, it is likely Martha and her children were with a married daughter or someone else, not a separate household.

The children of Caleb and Martha probably included these:

I. Elizabeth HURD was born in 1807 in Adams Co OH, Elizabeth died in Mason Co IL, ca 1859. On 3 Sep 1827, she married George MORRIS, possibly a son of Thomas MORRIS Jr and his first wife Betsy STEPHENSON, in Brown Co OH. Born in 1790 in Lexington, Fayette Co KY, George died in Mason Co IL, on 1 Jun 1861. They had the following children:

1. Nancy Ann (1829-1891)
2. Jane (1831-)
3. William (1833-)
4. Julia Ann (1834-)
5. David (1835-)
6. Rose Ann (1839-)
7. Charles (1841-)
8. Martin V (1843-1905)
9. Margaret (1845-1912)
10. Mary Eliza (1847-1917)
11. John (1849-)
12. Harriet (1851-)

II. Caleb HURD was born ca 1809 in KY. He was a cooper. In 1832, he married Jane PEW in Boone Co KY. They had the following children:

1. Caleb (1835-)
2. Margaret (1840-)
3. Lucy A (1844-)
4. George (1846-)
5. John (1850-)

III. Charles Thomas HURD was born in 1813 in Sprigg Twp, Adams Co OH. Charles Thomas died in Pendleton Co KY, on 8 Sep 1896. His first wife‘s name is not known. They had the following children:

1. Minerva (ca1830-<1880)
2.  Caleb (ca1834-)
3. Sarah (ca1836-)
4. William (1840-)
5. Robert (ca1842-)
6. W (ca1843-)
7. Malissa (ca1844-)

On 18 Jan 1846 when Charles Thomas was 33, he second married Indian SHELTON in Brown Co OH. She was born ca 1824 in OH, and her relation to John William Hurd’s wife Sarah Shelton, is not known. They had the following children:

1. Charles Thomas (1848-)
2. Rachel M (ca1850-)
3. Noah (ca1853-)
4.  George W (1854-)
5.   Mary R (1856-)
6.   Stephen A (ca1858-)
7.   India Ann (1859-)
8.   Leslie (ca1862-)
9. Eliza (ca1864-)
10. Hester (ca1866-)

About 1869, Charles third married Martha Araminta Tewell in Pendleton Co KY. Born 19 Aug 1834. Martha died in Pendleton Co KY, 9 Apr 1912.

IV. William HURD. Born say 1813, William died in Adams Co OH, ca 12 Feb 1841. His family in 1840 was in Adams Co OH, p 55: William Herd, 11001/20001. In the early 1830s, he married Mary HUTSON, daughter of Major HUTSON. Mary was born in 1814 in MD. They had the following children:

1.    John W (1834-1917)
2.    Sarah (1836-)
3.     Julia (1838-)
4.     Mary (1840-)

V. Jerushe (or Julia or Juda). Born ca 1811. Living 1880 Pike Co OH. She married Johnston Lawwill 19 Aug 1848 in Brown Co OH. Their children were:

1. Hester A (1850-19310
2. Charles Herd (1853-1918)
3. Mary Ann (1855)
4. Jane (1857)
5. William T (1859-1940)

VI. Ruth. Born ca 1815 in Ohio, probably Adams Co. She died probably in Pendleton Co KY in the 1860s. By 1842 at the latest, Ruth married Ellis Brooks. He was born ca 1811 or 1812 in Ohio and died after 1870 probably in Pendleton Co KY. Ellis may have been related to Leonard Brooks of Adams County, who was married to Martha (Oursler) Hurd’s niece, Jane True Oursler. Ruth and Ellis had these children:

1. Martha P (1842)
2. Judy Clarinda (1844)
3. Margaret (1846)
4. Louisa (1848)
5. Charles E (1850)

VII. (daughter) HURD. Born in 1810-20.

VIII. John HURD. Born on 24 Feb 1821 in Adams Co OH, he died in Davis Co IA, on 15 Jan 1898 and was buried in Orleans Cemetery, Moulton, IA. On 16 Mar 1845 John William married Sarah A SHELTON, daughter of Thomas SHELTON & Elizabeth DRYDEN, in Adams Co OH. Born on 10 Oct 1828 in Adams Co OH, Sarah A died in Moulton IA, on 18 Mar 1904. They had the following children:

1. Elizabeth Francis (1846-1919)
2. Martha Jane (1848-1929)
3.  Lucy (1851-)
4.  Laura Belle (1853-1924)
5.  Thomas O (1857-1861)
6. Charles Henry (1859-)
7. Flora (1862-)
8. Samuel W (1865-1926)
9. John William (1869-1937)
10. (deceased)

© Kathy Alvis Patterson, 2008, 2017

[1] History of Davis County, Iowa, Des Moines: Iowa Historical Company, 1882. LaCrosse, WI: Brookhaven Press, 2000 [Reprint], p 743: HURD, JOHN, farmer, section 34, postoffice Orleans; was born February 24, 1821, in Adams county, Ohio, and here grew to manhood. His father, Caleb, died when he was a babe, and he lived with his mother on the farm, and received a liberal education. In 1845, John Hurd came to Des Moines County, Iowa, and engaged in farming till 1857, when he went to Appanoose County two years; then to Anderson County, Kansas, for five and a half years; then returned to Appanoose County for eight years, and in the spring of 1873, he came to this county and located on his resent farm, where he has since resided. He owns a snug farm of 60 acres, well improved He was married March 16, 1844, to Miss Sarah A. Shelton, of Adams county. They have ten children: Elizabeth F., Martha J., Lucy, Laura, Charles H., Flora E., Samuel W., and two deceased. Mr. H. is a member of the Christian Church and in politics is a democrat.

An image of the short biography was posted by Alice Daniels at her closed Facebook group, Hurd, Shelton, Peninger Family. 22 Sep 2016.

[2] Caleb Hurd in Pendleton Co KY said both parents born in VA. Charles Thomas Hurd in Pendleton Co KY said father born in MD, mother in Ohio. John Hurd in Iowa said “Penn”; he also said his mother was born in Ohio.

[3] Margaret (Morris) Kent’s death certificate, Mason Co IL, p. 16, 12 Aug 1910.

[4] History of Adams Co OH, Evans & Stivers, 1900: “Major Hutson (grandfather of our subject) was a native of Ireland/ He located in Kentucky in 1804 on the old Daisy Plantation near Millersburg. Here he raised a family of children, five of whom lived to maturity. They were Henry, father of our subject; Hannah…; Rachel…; Elizabeth, wife of William Stevenson; and the wife of William Herd. The last named is the only survivor. Major Hutson removed to Adams County in 1812. He located on what is known as the Bloomhuff farm and resided there until his death, aged 90, in the year 1852.”

[5] There was an Araminta Hurd among the children of Joseph Hurd of Caroline Co MD; she married Joseph Rich in 1805. It is possible ut not likely that Caleb was a member of this Maryland family

[6] 1850 Sprigg Twp, Adams Co OH.

[7] Later, I discovered that one of the previously unidentified daughters of Caleb and Martha, Ruth Hurd, had married Ellis Brooks and moved to Pendleton Co KY by 1860.

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