Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....Hurd, Byron 1837 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 22, 2007, 3:45 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

BYRON HURD. No one is more accommodating to the wayfaring public than he whose
name appears above, and no one is more liked by his fellow-citizens than the
genial propietor of the Sherman House. Mr. Hurd was born in Lewistown, Niagara
County, N. Y., May 7, 1837. He is a son of Ansil and Eliza (Furness) Hurd. The
former was born in Keene, N. H., in 1799. Our subject's grandfather, Robert L.
Hurd also a native of New Hampshire, went to New York locating in Pike,
Alleghany County, and later, in 1845, came with our subject's father to Flint
and resided with his Son, Russel Hurd, at Pine Run, this county, until his
decease, which occurred when he was ninety-four years of age. He was of English
descent and of excellent family. He served in the War of 1812.

  Our subject's father was a shoemaker by trade. He came to Michigan in 1846,
bringing with him his family which comprised a wife and three children. He at
once engaged in manufacturing shoes, building a shop at the corner of Third and
Saginaw Streets and there employing from ten to sixteen men. Later he became
foreman for Mr. J. Delbridge, finally retiring from active labor and his decease
occurring in 1890, when at the age of ninety-one years. Our subject's mother was
born in Vermont. She was the daughter of Artemus Furness, who emigrated to Ohio
and then to Chesening, Saginaw County, where he purchased a farm and there lived
until his decease, which occurred when he was seventy-eight years of age. Our
subject's mother still survives and now resides in the first brick house which
was built in Flint and which was originally intended for a schoolhouse. She is
the mother of twelve children, nine of whom are living at the present time. Of
these the original of this sketch is the oldest child.

  When nine years of age our subject was brought by his parents to Flint, coming
by water-way from Buffalo to Detroit and thence by team. He attended the
district school in the old brick schoolhouse and afterward attended high school.
In 1852 he went to Painesville, Ohio, with his grandfather Furness, working in
the summers on the farm and attending school in the winter. He went back and
forth between Flint and his grandfather's home in Ohio until 1856, when he
returned to remain permanently and for five years took charge of a livery barn,
running the place until 1861. He then went to the oil regions of Pennsylvania
and remained for one year, teaming it from Waterford Erie County, to McClintoc
Flats, hauling oil over the road. He took some horses through to Oskaloosa,
Iowa, driving them on foot from Burlington. He remained there a year engaged in
teaming and in the employ of the Western Stage Company, carrying mail. He drove
the mail carriage between Oskaloosa and Fort Kearney, Neb. He was thus employed
for about five years.

  In 1867 Mr. Hurd returned to Flint and served as a common laborer during the
summers upon the farms and in the winters in a lumber camp. About 1876 he became
foreman of a livery stable for Mr. I. H. Beebe and was then employed in the old
Thayer House, now the Crystal House, and afterward became clerk in the McIntyre
House, later in the Sherman House which has been rebuilt and in 1887 he rented
and furnished the Exchange House on Saginaw Street, opposite the Courthouse and
ran it until September, 1889, when he purchased the fixtures of the Sherman
House and has since been its propietor. It is one of the oldest hotels in the
city, is nicely furnished and in every way a first-class house.

  Our subject was married in Lansing to Miss Polly Bennett, a native of New York
State. Their nuptials were solemnized May 30, 1882. In his belief Mr. Hurd is a
Republican of the true-blue type.



Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892


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