Grady-Thomas-Screven County GaArchives Biographies.....Hurst, George T. 1833 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 1, 2004, 12:34 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 1047-1048

   REV. GEORGE T. HURST. Among the ministers of the gospel in south Georgia few
have equaled the record of service and experience of Rev. George Thomas Hurst,
now living retired at Cairo in Grady county.

   George Thomas Hurst was born seven miles northeast of Thomasville, Georgia,
December 1, 1833, so that he is now in his eightieth year. His father was John
W. Hurst, born in Screven county and the grandfather was Thomas Hurst. The
latter moved from Screven to Thomas county and became one of the early settlers
in that vicinity. He bought land seven miles northeast of Thomasville, built a
log cabin in the woods and cut and cleared a farm out of the wilderness. When he
began raising cotton he had to find a market for it at Tallahassee. He spent all
the rest of his life on that homestead, and his remains now rest in the family
lot on the farm. His wife survived him several years. In their family were
children named William, Thomas, Betsy, Susie, Serena, John W. and Harriet.

   John W. Hurst, the father, was a boy when his parents moved to Thomas county,
and after his marriage he settled on a tract of land one mile away from his
father's home. A few years later, in 1842, he bought other land one mile east of
Thomasville, and conducted his plantation with the aid of slave labor up to the
time of the war. He continued to make his home there until his death at the age
of thirty-nine. Soon after his marriage, he had engaged in one of the Indian
campaigns, which marked the final struggle between the whites and the red man in
Florida and Georgia. He participated in two battles with the Indians, and in the
latter was severely wounded. John W. Hurst married Maria Hicks, a daughter of
George Hicks, one of the first settlers of Thomas county. George Hicks cleared
his farm near Grooverville, in what is now Brooks county, and lived on that
estate until his death. Mrs. John W. Hurst lived to be more than eighty years of
age and her family of seven children were Mahala A., George T., Wilet A.,
Harriet A., Mary A. S., William E., and Susie E. J. Both parents were members of
the Missionary Baptist church, and the father was affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity.

   George Thomas Hurst, when thirteen years of age, joined the Methodist church,
but at seventeen left that denomination and entered the Missionary Baptist. He
was made clerk of the church, which was the first organization of the Missionary
Baptist church in Thomas county. When twenty-six years of age he was licensed to
preach and was ordained by the Big Creek church in Thomas county. His career in
the ministry was extended to the notable length of half a century and he held
many appointments in Georgia, Florida and Alabama. In his active record he has
constituted nineteen different churches, has baptized more than sixteen hundred
souls, and has married more than three hundred couples.

   Though his record as a minister has been so noteworthy, the services of Rev.
Hurst are kindly remembered by hundreds of people who in the early days attended
his singing schools. He was one of the first teachers of vocal in south Georgia,
and is said to have been the second to have taught in this particular district
of the state. He began teaching when about twenty-five years of age and taught
two years before the breaking out of the Rebellion. At that time he was
conducting from eight to ten schools in four adjoining counties and carried on
this work in connection with his preaching and farming for a number of years,
the winter season being the particular time when his singing schools flourished.
Reverend Hurst has kept record and finds that he has taught vocal music to five
thousand persons in Georgia and elsewhere. When the war came on, he was, at the
request of the women of Thomas county, detached from the regular service in
order to come home and take charge of the issuing of supplies to the soldiers'
families. As soon as the war was ended he began teaching singing schools and
preaching and farming again. For thirty-five years or more he has been engaged
as a Sabbath school lecturer and in the organization of such schools in Georgia,
Alabama and Florida.

   In 1872, Reverend Hurst settled at Cairo. He was one of the first settlers at
the little town which then consisted in a business aspect of three stores, kept
in log houses. He bought six hundred and fifty acres of land, including the
ground on which the present magnificent courthouse now stands. He built a house
upon the very site occupied by the courthouse, and made his home there for about
seven years. He then built another house a quarter mile east of the station and
lived there until 1913, since which time he has come into town.

   Reverend Hurst was married on May 6, 1851. to Ellen J. Ramsey. She was born
in Americus. and was a daughter of William F. and Flora J. McPherson Ramsey. Her
death occurred in 1911 on the twenty-ninth of November. The nine children in the
familv of Reverend Hurst are named: Charlie, Emma, William E., Joshua Thomas,
Sarah J., James E., Ira L., Carrie Belle and George W. Reverend Hurst served as
worshipful master of his Masonic lodge until his ministerial duties compelled
him to resign. He still has his heart in his religious work, and as strength
permits employs it for the service of the Lord.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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