Rev. John H. Gurney Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 396-399

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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REV. JOHN H. GURNEY, deceased, was born in Maine, in the year 1821. His 
youth was passed as a clerk in the city of Boston, and in 1839 he 
entered Oberlin College, Ohio, graduating from that institution with 
the class of 1845 and received-the degree of A. M. He then prepared 
himself for the ministry by a theological course at Andover, 
Massachusetts, and at the completion of this course, he was given a 
charge at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and was there ordained in 1850. In 
1856 he was sent back to Massachusetts, where he worked in the ministry 
for fourteen years, and then to Dover, Maine, where he spent six years. 
This biography is supplemented by a portrait of Mr. Gurney. 

In 1879, Rev. Gurney went to Dakota and filed a claim to the farm that 
he afterward so well improved, and upon which his son now lives. In 
1881 he erected the home, which in those early days, must have been 
looked upon as a palace, for it is to-day one of the most comfortable 
and pleasant among the many fine dwellings in McCook county. In this 
domicile, his wife, who had shared his joys and sorrows, losses and 
gains ever since the year 1849, made her home. Mrs. Gurney bore the 
maiden name of Miss Susan Irvine. She was also a graduate of Oberlin 
College, and on the plains of Dakota they together continued the work 
to which their lives were consecrated. In 1883, was organized the First 
Congregational church of McCook county, and a building was erected in 
which for eight years our subject held regular services. Sun Prairie 
and Salem congregation was also organized at an early date and the two 
churches gave the Rev. J. H. Gurney an abundance of work: nevertheless 
he succeeded in also establishing a church at Canova, Miner county. In 
all of his eight years' work in this vicinity, he was assisted by his 
able and devoted wife. He then went back east, but in 1892 returned to 
Dakota with the intention of there spending the remaining years of his 
life. In the same year, the wife met with an accident which resulted in 
her death, and thus in her, McCook county lost one of its most earnest 
Christian workers, one in whom all found a true and faithful friend, 
the children a mother, and in whom the young people loved to confide. 
She now rests near the prairie home and but a short distance from the 
church she had so ably assisted in founding. Mr. Gurney departed this 
life December 7, 1898. 

To Rev. and Mrs. Gurney were born seven children. The fifth child in 
order of birth, Joseph, became a pioneer of South Dakota, and is at 
present in charge of his father's homestead, which he is steadily 
improving. He was born in Massachusetts November 12, 1859, and in 1880 
he came to Dakota and filed a claim to land in Pearl township, 
adjoining his father's homestead, and is now operating both farms, 
doing a general farming business. He is also making a specialty of 
short horn cattle and keeps a herd of about one hundred head. The place 
is supplied with water from an artesian well which is but eighty-six 
feet deep, and was bored with a hand auger, yet is one of the finest 
wells in the vicinity. When it was first sunk, there was a flow of four 
thousand barrels per day, and it has not greatly decreased. Joseph 
Gurney was united in marriage, in 1887, to Miss Gertrude Hawley, 
daughter of Austin and Annie (Swan) Hawley, natives of New York, and 
three children bless their home: Edward E., Joseph P., and the baby, 
Helen.