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GEORGE BURDUE, a prominent successful farmer of
Townsend township, was born February 19, 1811, in what is now Milan
township, Erie county. He is second in a family of eleven children
(four of whom died in infancy) born to William and Elizabeth (Vlazer)
Burdue, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania, the former of French and
the latter of German extraction.
William Burdue, the father of the subject, was
born November 26, 1782, and received an ordinary common-school education in
the fall of the following year (1810) emigrated with his wife and child to
the then extreme limit of the western frontier, the almost unbroken and
pathless wilderness of northern Ohio. Settling in the northern part of
Lot No. 4, Townsend township, Huron county, he entered wild lands, and built
a log cabin in the primitive manner of those days, with clap-board or shake
roof, puncheon floor and wooden latches. During the first winter after
his arrival he left his family in the country near the Indian village of
Milan, while he busied himself in getting his cabin ready for their
reception in the spring. Here, in the dense forest, by which they were
surrounded for miles on every side, he commenced to carve out a home for
himself and family, subsequently clearing up and improving an excellent
farm. On this home the family experienced all the hardships and
privations incident to a frontier life, mitigated, however, by the various
pleasures common to backwoods life in those early days. The vast
forest around wild honey was abundant, and maple syrup and sugar easily
obtained. Though their white neighbors were few and far between, there
was a warm, hearty, neighborly feeling existing among them, and their social
intercourse at the frequent house raisings, log rollings and quilting bees
was of the most friendly character. Soon after their arrival the
family made the acquaintance of an old Indian in the vicinity, who
subsequently, by reason of the many favors shown him, especially by Mrs.
Burdue, a lady of most excellent character, became warmly attached to
the family, and rendered them many services. On one occasion Mr.
Burdue, having lost a span of horses and a colt, was asked by this
Indian to show him their tracks; this being done, the Indian carefully
measured them with his hands and went away, returning in a few days and
informing Mr. Burdue that he had found tracks answering to the
description. He also learned that the Indians would, in a few days, go
to Huron, their usual trading point, and Mr. Burdue requested his father,
Nathaniel Burdue, who was able to speak the Indian language, to go to Huron
and demand the surrender of the animals. This he did, but the Indians
refused to give them up without compensation, the terms being a small
quantity of corn and whiskey, which were promptly furnished and the horses
returned.
This same old Indian gave frequent evidences of his
friendship for the family, the most important of which occurred during the
war of 1812-15, soon after the surrender of Gen. Hull, when, partly
by sings, he made the family understand that the savages were preparing to
massacre the settlers; that the expiration of a certain number of moons they
would all probably be scalped if they remained in the country; and at the
same time he enjoined upon them the strictest secrecy as to the source of
their information, assuring them that death to him would be the consequence
of this friendly warning if known to other members of his tribe. After
this he went away, and was never again seen in these parts. The family
immediately prepared for flight, first hiding some of their household and
cooking utensils under the puncheon floor of their cabin, and went back to
Pennsylvania, where they remained until after the close of the war,
returning to the frontier home in the spring of 1816; and they found the
articles hidden under the puncheon floor undisturbed, although the cabin had
been occupied by the savages.
Mr. Burdue brought with him, on his return from
Pennsylvania, two small buhrs or stones for a hand-mill, which he set up
near one side of the cabin, and which was used by the neighbors for several
miles around, and was for a time the only one in the vicinity. He
afterward sold the mill to a potter in Milan, who used it for grinding clay.
For many years the wolves, with which the woods were swarming, were among
their greatest pests, and would carry off or destroy calves and young stock
of all kinds, unless it was secured under the very eaves of the cabin; they
were frequently seen prowling about the spring near the house in daytime,
and on one occasion destroyed the children's playhouse near the cabin.
Wild cats and panthers were also quite numerous. Game of a less
dangerous and more useful character, such as deer, wild turkeys, wild hogs
and squirrels, abounded.
One of the greatest difficulties of the settlers in
that early day was to procure fabric for clothing and other necessary
household articles, everything of the kind being very scarce and very dear;
prints and domestics were worth from fifty to sixty cents per yard; hence
they were obliged to raise flax and manufacture linen, and to weave
linsey-woolsey and jeans for domestic use; and not unfrequently they
manufactured various articles of wearing apparel from the skins of deer and
other wild animals. Salt, too, was very scarce, and at one time Mr.
Burdue was obliged to pay ten dollars per barrel for a very inferior
quality. Soon after his second arrival he went back to Pennsylvania
and returned with several head of cattle, all of which died of
bloody-murrain one after another; their milch cows too died of the same
disease, until they had lost their last cow seven different times.
For some time after they came to the country there were
no schools in the neighborhood, and when a rude log house was finally
erected, the schools were of the crudest, most primitive character for
several years. As to churches, there were none in the section, and, as
usual in almost all new countries, the Methodist itinerant preachers, or
circuit riders, were the pioneers in teh religious field, holding services
first at one, and then another, of the settlers' cabins. Both Mr.
Burdue and his wife were lifelong, earnest members of the M. E> Church.
His death occurred at his home in Townsend township, October 23, 1834, and
that of his wife March 29, 1868, when she was in her seventy-seventh year,
her birth having occurred September 26, 1791. They reared seven
children who grew to maturity, of whom George is the subject of this
sketch; Nathaniel resides in Norwalk; John and Benjamin
are in Linn County, Kans.; Jacob died August 5, 1874, in Michigan;
and William W. died July 22, 1886, at Collins, Ohio.
Nathaniel Burdue, grandfather of subject,
emigrated to northern Ohio in about 1808, settling in Berlin township, now
in Erie county, where he entered a large tract of land (including the
present site of Berlin Heights), erected a cabin, and the following year
went back to Pennsylvania for his wife and family. Here he
subsequently cleared and improved a farm, upon which he resided until his
death, which occurred when he was over ninety years old. He was born
and educated in Pennsylvania, where in early life he learned the shoemaker's
trade. Being left an orphan at a very early age, he was bound out till
he attained his majority, soon after which he married Miss Margaret Welch,
also a native of Pennsylvania. She also lived to be over ninety years
of age, and her death was occasioned by an accident, her clothes having
caught fire, whereby she was burned severely. She was a remarkably
active, vigorous and energetic woman all her life, and was a lifelong,
devout member of the Presbyterian Church.
George Burdue, whose name appears at the opening
of his sketch, received but a very limited English education in youth, such
as could be gleaned at the primitive schools, held in rude log buildings, of
the Ohio frontier in that early day. In after years, however, he
succeeded, by his own exertions, in acquiring an ordinary business
education. He is possessed of good judgment and a strong, active mind,
and is a close observer of everything around him, thus gaining in the great
school of experience a fund of useful knowledge and valuable information.
He has also been a constant reader, and is well informed. Mr.
Burdue owns, and has always lived upon, the old home farm where his
youth and early life were passed, and where he has been engaged in
agricultural pursuits with the most encouraging success. For several
years he was also engaged in manufacturing charcoal for the market, of which
he has burned and sold many kilns. He is classed among the pioneers
and belongs to the "Firelands Historical Society," a pioneer association,
being among the first white children born in the northern part of Huron (now
Erie) county, Ohio. In about 1844 he went to Green Springs, Seneca
county, thirty-three miles away, to mill, but there being many others ahead
of him, he was obliged to leave his grist and go back a second time, thus
traveling 132 miles for one grinding. When a young man our subject was
quite a successful hunter, and killed over a hundred deer, besides wild
turkeys and other game without number. In 1830 he killed a very large
well-known deer (but a short distance from the house), known as "Old
Golden," which other hunters had frequently tried but failed to secure; his
track was known by his having lost one hoof. The antlers of this deer,
still in his possession, he keeps as a relic of early days.
Mr. Burdue was married, November 20, 1838, to
Miss Susan Hill, a native of Delaware county, N. Y., born October 5,
1821, daughter of Moses and Sally (Brooks) Hill, both natives of New
York State and of English extraction. Two children - a son and a
daughter - have blessed this union: Moses W., born March 13,
1841, and Sarah E., now Mrs. Thomas E. Riggs, born June
25, 1846. Mrs. Susan Burdue's death occurred March 17, 1885,
when she was in her sixty-fourth year. Though a member of no church
she was nevertheless a firm believer in the Christian religion, and a
practical Christian. Mr. Burdue now makes his home with his son
Moses W. and family, on the old home place. He is and has been
an earnest, lifelong member of the M. E. Church. In politics he
was for many years a Democrat, but is now identified with the Prohibition
party, and is an earnest advocate of the temperance cause. He is one
of the old pioneers, prominent and representative farmers of the entire
county, as well as one of its most respected citizens.
Moses W. Burdue, with whom our subject now makes
his home, has always resided on the old home farm, where he has been engaged
in agricultural pursuits, the greater part of the time with good success,
trade, at which he has been employed to some extent and at various places.
He received a good English and scientific education in youth at the common
schools and at the Western Reserve Normal School. Miss
Betson, and two sons blessed this union. During the first years of
the present century Mr. Hislop emigrated to America, settling in
Lower Canada. He was a stone-cutter and carver by occupation, and was
universally conceded to be one of the finest workmen in the country.
Shortly before the war of 1812, he, with others, contracted with the English
Government for the construction of extensive barracks and fortifications
along the Canadian and American frontier, many of which works are still
standing, monuments of their skill and energy. Mr. Hislop
continued to follow his trade until his death. For many years before
coming to America he was a prominent and extensive contractor in the
stone-cutting business in Edinburgh, Scotland, during which time he had in
his employ a man named Dixon, who, years afterward, became inspector
of the reformatory prisons in Canada, one of which was built by Mr.
Hislop on the same island in the Richelieu before alluded to as the site
of the fort. Prior to his immigration he was a devout member of the
Presbyterian Church, but after his arrival in Canada he identified himself
with the Episcopal Church.
Thomas Hurst, the subject proper of this sketch,
was the ninth in the family of eleven children of John and Margaret Hurst,
and received a very fair English education at the common schools of Canada
in early life. After his father's death, which occurred when he was
only ten years old, he remained on the old homestead with his mother until
her death, which occurred in 1857, when our subject was but fourteen years
of age. Being thus left an orphan at an early age, he was thrown
entirely on his own resources, and compelled to begin the battle with the
stern realities of life alone. For several years he was employed by
the month - generally on a farm - but was neither afraid nor ashamed to turn
his hand to any honorable employment that offered an opportunity for making
an honest dollar. On September 1, 1860, he set out for the United
States, and on September 3 found himself at Kipton, Lorain Co., Ohio, with
two dollars and a half in his pocket. Here he went to work at anything
that offered, usually farm work, and in the spring of 1866 bought a partly
improved farm of sixty acres in Wakeman township, Huron county, having no
buildings and only five acres cleared; but during the following fall
he built a house, moved on to the place March 13, 1867, and commenced
farming on his own account. On this place he remained some fifteen years,
when he sold out and bought the farm of one hundred acres in Townsend
township, Huron county, known as the Manville farm (of which he is the third
owner from the original), upon which he now resides, and where he has since
been successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits. Of Mr. Hurst it
may most truthfully be said he is the architect of his own fortune, having
commenced the battle of life with no friend save good health and an energy
that knew no such word as fail, and with no inheritance save a stout heart
and willing hands; nevertheless, by strict attention to business, industry,
economy, and honest integrity, he has succeeded in acquiring a very fair
share of this world's goods. He is a man of good judgement and quick
perceptions, is at present one of the truestees of Townsend township, and
has held various other township positions. Mr. Hurst took out
his naturalization papers and became a citizen of the United States June 20,
1868, casting his first Presidential vote for Gen. U. S. Grant in
November of that year.
On December 25, 1866, Mr. Hurst was married, in
Elyria, to Miss Alice M. Close, a native of Henrietta township,
Lorain Co., Ohio, daughter of Chauncey R. and Emeline (Ashenhurst) Close,
the former of whom was a native of Auburn, N. Y., and of English descent,
while the latter was a native of Florence township, Erie Co., Ohio, and of
English-German extraction. Four children have been blessed the union
of Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, viz.: Ernest C., Amy M., Perry T.
and Marion A. Mrs. Hurst is a consistent member of the Disciple
Church, and while Mr. Hurst belongs to no church, he is a believer in
practical Christianity. In politics he is a stanch and uncompromising
Republican, and is generally recognized as one of the leading spirits of his
party in this part of the county, and one of its best workers and
organizers. He ahs always taken a deep interest and an active part in
the political affairs of the country, local, State and National, and is one
of the prominent, representative citizens of this county. |
