BIO: Jacob Hurst, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                             CHAPTER XXXIX. 

                        BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

417  BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

  JACOB HURST (originally spelled Horsh), dry good merchant, 
Mechanicsburg, is a native of York County, Penn., born at Dillsburg 
August 13, 1832, son of Jacob B. and Susan (Herchfeldt) Hurst, former 
of whom born near Dillsburg York Co. Penn., January 7, 1808, was a son 
of John (who was a farmer) and Catharine (Cocklin) Hurst, who were the 
parents of four sons and three daughters, who lived to be men and 
women.  Jacob B. was raised on a farm until he was fifteen, when he 
began to learn the tailor's trade with William Gilbethorp; four years 
later he went to Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and after working at his 
trade a number of years returned to Dillsburg and opened a tailor shop 
on his own account in 1831.  He afterward (in 1855) opened a general 
store, and in the spring of 1866 came to Mechanicsburg and established 
the dry good house of J. B. Hurst & Son.  He was a director of the 
First National Bank and a man of high honor and sterling worth.  He and 
his wife were earnest Christians and members of the Presbyterian 
Church, in which he was elder for a number of years.  Jacob B. Hurst 
stood high in the estimation of all as an upright, honest Christian 
gentleman.  He departed this life November 18, 1875; his widow is 
living in Mechanicsburg.  This couple had seven children, three sons 
and four daughters:  Edwin W., a merchant tailor of Mechanicsburg; 
Jacob, our subject; Lydia B., wife of William A. Spahr, a stock-dealer, 
residing in Harrisburg; Mary E., wife of William B. Nelson, resides on 
a farm near, Dillsburg, Penn.; Templeton B., of East Saginaw, Mich., an 
ex-soldier from Company H Seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves; Kate 
M., wife of Robert B. Mateer, a hardware merchant of Harrisburg, Penn.; 
Melizena M., wife of George W. Hackett, a hardware merchant of Sunbury, 
Penn.  The subject of our sketch attended school until he was fifteen, 
then assisted his father in the merchant tailoring and general store at 
Dillsburg until the fall of 1865, when he came with his father to 
Mechanicsburg and formed a partnership with him, under the firm name of 
J. B. Hurst & Son.  Three months after his father's death he purchased 
the entire stock and has since conducted the business alone; he now 
carries a full line of dry goods and notions, carpets, etc., valued at 
$17,000.  September 5, 1872, Mr. Hurst married Julia Wilson, born in 
Carlisle, Penn., daughter of Robert and Sarah (Shock) Wilson.  To Mr. 
and Mrs. Hurst have been born two children:  Wilson and Corliss.  Mrs. 
Hurst is a member of the Lutheran Church.  Our subject is one of the 
leading business men of Cumberland County, and stands high in the 
estimation of all as an upright business man.  The family is of German 
descent, and is one of the oldest in Pennsylvania.