Biographical Sketch of Eber H. HURFORD (1893); Chester County, PA

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Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl-
vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley
and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila-
delphia, PA, 1893, page 442.

"EBER H. HURFORD, one of the most influential and substantial citizens of
New Garden township, is a son of Nicholas and Dinah (Gregg) Hurford, and
was born in New Garden township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 10,
1802.  He was reared on the farm, received a practical education in the
schools of his neighborhood, and assisted his father in farming until he
had attained his majority, when he engaged in agricultural pursuits, which
he followed until eight years ago.  He has always been a resident of New
Garden township, except a short time passed at Kennett Square and a few
years spent in East Marlborough township.  He sold his farm eight years
ago, and has retired.  Mr. Hurford is a stanch republican in politics, and
has been for many years a member of Kennett meeting of the Society of
Friends, in which he has always been active and useful.  Mr. Hurford has
been successful in his various business enterprises, and by good manage-
ment and careful attention has secured a competency.  He has with commend-
able energy and industry made a success of all of his various agricultural
pursuits.

"Eber H. Hurford is of English descent.  His paternal grandfather, John
Hurford, was a native of Ashton, Delaware county, and about 1732 married
Hannah Fairlamb.  He was a cooper by trade, and a Friend in religious
faith.  Beside working at his trade he was engaged in the mercantile busi-
ness, and was known in that early day of Pennsylvania's history as a
'shopkeeper,' the name then applied to one who followed that line of busi-
ness.  He died in Chester county, and left a family of eleven children, of
whom one was Nicholas Hurford, the father of the subject of this sketch.

"Nicholas Hurford was born March 15, 1754, in New Garden township, where
he died on March 28, 1837, aged eighty-four years.  He was a farmer, a
whig, and a Friend, a quiet, steady and useful man, and as a neighbor, a
friend and a citizen, stood high in the community where he resided.  His
wife, Dinah (Gregg) Hurford, was a daughter of Michael and Sarah Gregg.
Their union was blessed with seven children: Michael, Mary Booth, Jesse,
Joel, Eber, Samuel, and Isaac.  None of these children died under eighty
years of age, while three of them, Eber, Samuel and Isaac are still living.

"On September 17, 1828, Eber Hurford married Hannah Allen, who was a
daughter of Ellis and Rebecca Allen, and is now deceased.  To Mr. and Mrs.
Hurford were born eight children, three sons and five daughters:  Lydia
A., wife of David Chambers, a farmer of London Grove township; Allen, who
died in infancy; Jesse, who is now deceased, married Elizabeth Taylor;
Ellis (dead); Hannah M.; R. Emma, married William Wilson, a farmer of
Upper Oxford township; Sarah, wife of William Sharpless, now in the cream-
ery business at Toughkenamon; and Philena C."