Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Hurlburt, Tom M. March 28, 1860 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 9, 2009, 5:31 pm Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company TOM M. HURLBURT. One of the most capable and efficient public officials and popular citizens of Multnomah county is Tom M. Hurlburt, who has been sheriff of the county continuously for fourteen years, and has rendered such satisfactory service that he will in all probability be retained in that office as long as he desires it. A very interesting review of his life was printed in the Oregon Daily Journal by Fred Lockley on May 17, 1927, as follows: "My father, John Quincy Adams Hurlburt, came to Oregon fifty-seven years ago as locating engineer for the Oregon & California railroad," said Sheriff Tom Hurlburt when I visited him recently at the Multnomah county courthouse. "I went to school to Prof. I. W. Pratt in 1871. I started my business career as a paper carrier. From 1873 to 1876 I carried the Oregonian. In those days the carriers had to fold their own papers. I reported at the Oregonian office at three A. M., folded my papers, carried my route and got home at six A. M., in time to build the kitchen fire for breakfast. I received three dollars a week for carrying a route of about two hundred papers. "My grandfather, Thomas Hurlburt, was born in upper Canada in 1808. He was a Methodist minister and missionary among the Indians. I was named for him. He was editor of the paper called 'The Peep of Day,' published in the Indian language. He died in 1873. My father was named John Quincy Adams, after his mother's cousin, President Adams. He was born in Canada West, December 13, 1833, and died in December, 1908. My father was educated for the ministry and had planned to follow his father's footsteps, but after graduating from college he preferred engineering. He enlisted in 1861 in Company K, Thirty- sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, served four years and came out of the war with a captain's commission. He and Tom Potter, the railway man, were friends. After the war, father helped build a railroad from Burlington to Council Bluffs. My mother, Mary Adams Hurlburt, was born in Indiana. Father met and married her at Albia, Iowa, where I was born, March 28, 1860. One of my first recollections is of seeing the soldiers when they were mustered out at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1865. "Father and mother had six children, four boys and two girls, all of whom are living. Mother died one year to a day before father. They had celebrated their golden wedding. I was ten years old when we came to Portland. I graduated in 1877 from high school, and at once went out with father on railroad survey work. We surveyed the West Side railroad from St. Joe to Corvallis and also the road from Albany to Lebanon. My father not only surveyed these roads, but was chief engineer in charge of construction. In 1881 I ran a preliminary line from Roseburg to Grants Pass, and later from Grants Pass to the state line. In 1884 I was employed by the Northern Pacific as a surveyor. We located the Stampede Pass tunnel, and also the line from the eastern approach toward Ellensburg. In the late autumn of 1884 I returned to Portland and opened a surveying office. "I was married January 17, 1884, to Clara L. Files. We were married in Ashland. Our son Raymond has charge of the concrete work for the city of Portland. Rodney is a deputy in my office and Ralph was killed while serving with Company K, Three Hundred and Sixty-second Infantry, in France. Prior to going overseas, Ralph had served as captain of the Multnomah football team. "I served as county surveyor in 1886, 1888 and 1890. I was elected city engineer of Portland, East Portland and Albina in 1891 and was reelected in 1893 and 1895. I took the civil service examination and went to work for the United States government as United States examiner of surveys. I worked for the government eleven years. In 1908 I went to work for the city of Portland in the engineering department. I became assistant to Douglas Taylor, city engineer. I was also assistant to City Engineer Jim Morris. At the end of Morris's term I was appointed city engineer and served two years. I was elected sheriff in 1914 and reelected in 1916 and 1918. "Back in 1888 William S. Ladd, Henry Failing and Henry Corbett, the water commissioners, employed me to examine the Bull Run water supply. The governor had vetoed the bill permitting Portland to use this as a water suply for Portland, on the ground that Bull Run water was not fit to drink, as it came off the glaciers and snow on Mount Hood and would not be wholesome. Two other men and myself walked with packs on our backs up to Bull Run lake. We found that the water from Mount Hood couldn't possibly get into Bull Run lake, so next year the Legislature passed the bill permitting the city of Portland to take water from Bull Run lake. "I am a thirty-second degree Mason. I have taken all the chairs in Washington Lodge. I also belong to the Royal Arch Masons and various other fraternal organizations. About fifteen of the men in the sheriff's office went overseas. We have here in the sheriff's office about eighty-three employees." As supplementing the foregoing statements, it may be stated that in 1889 the Sheriff's father served as chief engineer of the railroad and Tom M. was his assistant, and at that time his father gave him a gold watch, which he still carries and which keeps perfect time. His father, who was one of the pioneer surveyors of this part of the country, picked out the route for the first railroad line from this state to California. In 1896 a railroad extended from Portland to Goble, and interested parties in Astoria sent word for Tom M. Hurlburt to make a railroad survey from Goble to Astoria. He took a scow and surveying crew and, working down the river, made the desired survey for the railroad, which was later built in part by the Hammond Lumber Company, and still later by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Mr. Hurlburt was reelected sheriff in 1920 and 1924, having served twice as long as any previous sheriff of Multnomah county, and is in 1928 a candidate for reelection. He is a republican in his political views and is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and served two terms as worthy patron of the Order of the Eastern Star. He was for twelve years a director of the Masonic Temple Association and has always maintained a deep interest in everything concerning the welfare and prosperity of his city or county. Loyal and fearless in the performance of duty, he has proven the right man for the place which he holds, and to a notable degree he commands the unqualified confidence and respect of the people of city and county. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Pages 817-818 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/hurlburt743gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 7.3 Kb