Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of William Reynold HURST ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 93-94 WILLIAM REYNOLD HURST, organizer and executive head of the firm of W. R. Hurst & Company, which conducts one of the foremost real estate and insurance agencies in the City of Williamson, Mingo County, was born at Dingess, this county, October 2, 1897, and is a son of William Alex ander Hurst and Cynthia Freelove (Thomas) Hurst, the former of whom was born in Carroll County, Virginia, March 1, 1868, and the latter of whom was born at Burkes Garden, that state, October 16, 1868, a daughter of John L. Thomas. The marriage of the parents was solemnized at Gray, Mingo County, West Virginia, in 1896. The lineage of the Hurst family traces back to English origin, and the original American progenitor settled in Loudoun County, Virginia, in the early Colonial period The family has been for many generations one of prom- inence and influence in Carroll County, Virginia, and there William Hurst, great-grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in the year 1798. He became an extensive planter and slaveholder, and continued his residence in his native county until his death, in 1891, at the patriarchal age of ninety-three years. His son, Jesse T., was born on the old home plantation in Carroll County in October, 1836, and at the inception of the Civil war he went forth in de- fense of the Confederacy, as a member of the Twenty-ninth Virginia Infantry. At the battle of Seven Pines, in 1862, he was wounded, but after his recovery he continued his active service in the army until the close of the war. He served as justice of the peace in Carroll County for a full half century, and has long been numbered among the pro- gressive and successful farmers of that county. Though he is now (1922) eighty-six years of age he retains splendid physical and mental vitality, as does also his wife, whose maiden name was Keturah Smith and who was born in April, 1836. They became the parents of eleven children, of whom the son William Alexander is the father of him whose name initiates this sketch. William A. Hurst was reared on the fine old homestead farm which was the place of his birth and received his youthful education in the schools of his native state. As a youth he taught school during the winter terms, and worked on the farm in the intervening summer seasons. From 1890 to 1893 ho was a guard at the Virginia State Penitentiary at Richmond, and he then, in 1894, established himself in the general merchandise business at Gray, Mingo County, West Virginia. In 1896 he transferred his business and residence to Dingess, this county, and in 1902 he removed with his family to War Eagle, to enter the coal business. In 1904 he removed to Williamson, where shortly afterward he organized the Hurst Hardware Company, which was in- corporated with a capital of $5,000, and of which he became the president. This company developed a wholesale and retail hardware business that reached an average of $175,000 a year. From 1908 to 1913 Mr. Hurst served as sheriff of the county, an office in which he made a record that has not been excelled by that of any other who has been the incumbent of the office. In 1914 he became associated with M. T. Persinger in the organization of the Persinger Hardware & Furniture Company, with a capitalization of $250,000, this corporation having taken over the business of the Hurst Hardware Company. Mr. Hurst became president of the new company, and continued his service in this posi- tion until his death, this concern now controlling an average annual business of approximately $1,000,000. Mr. Hurst was one of the organizers of and was the first president of the Day and Night Bank of Williamson, was president of the War Eagle Coal Company and the Winifrede Land Com- pany, and was a stockholder and director in many other important business and industrial corporations in this section of the state. He was an uncompromising supporter of the cause of the democratic party, was a Scottish Rite Mason and an Elk, and was an elder of the First Presby- terian Church of Williamson. Of him the following ap- preciative estimate has been given: "As a man he was kindly and affable, and his generosity knew only the bounds of his opportunity to extend the same. He was a self-made man, and thus his large and worthy success in life is the more pleasing to contemplate. Probably no man in Mingo County had a greater number of sincere friends than did William A. Hurst, and he knew virtually every man in the county. Mr. Hurst met a tragic and instantaneous death in one of the most terrible wrecks that ever occurred on the lines of the New York Central Railroad, he having been one of twelve persons killed, and 110 having been injured. Mr. Hurst had gone to Buffalo, New York, and was pre- paring to accompany his son William R. and the latter 'a wife back to Williamson, the son and his wife having been on their wedding tour. On the morning of July 1, 1919, the family party, which included Mrs. James W. Peters, of Williamson, an aunt of William R. Hurst, boarded the New York Central train No. 41 for Columbus, Ohio. Reserva- tions had been made in the rear Pullman car of the train, which was compelled to make a stop at Dunkirk, New York, in order to repair an overheated journal on the rear Pullman. Flagmen sent out to stop the through train No. 7, known as the Westerner, which did not make stops at Dunkirk, failed to arrest the incoming flyer, which collided with and telescoped the rear Pullman of train No. 41, it having been estimated that the Westerner was moving at the rate of fifty-five miles an hour at the time. A scene of terror followed, the engine of No. 7 ran under and overturned the rear sleeper of the No. 41 train, and the escaping steam from the engine scalded virtually all occupants of the sleeper, while smoke added its suffocating fumes to the horror. In this wreck William Alexander Hurst was in- stantaneously killed. Mrs. William R. Hurst was painfully scalded all over her left side, and received a deep cut just above her right ankle; Mrs. Peters escaped with minor bruises and scalds, but, as a result of the shock, she fell down some steps after arriving at her home, fractured her right hip and became permanently crippled; William R. Hurst received concussion of the brain and was made un- conscious, was lightly scalded and one of his knees was badly bruised. Mrs. William R. Hurst has recovered from her injuries save that her right leg remains very weak and her right ankle habitually turns or falls over when she is walk- ing. The remains of the loved father were brought home for interment, and the entire community was not only shocked by his tragic death but also manifested a deep sense of personal loss and bereavement." William R. Hurst attended the public schools at War Eagle and the old academy at Williamson. In 1905 he lost his hearing from an attack of spinal meningitis, and in 1906 he received a few months of instruction from a private teacher. In the following year he entered the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Mount Airy, Philadelphia, where he remained until June, 1910, and covered grade and high school work. From the fall of 1910 to June, 1912, he attended the Wright Oral School in New York City. In June, 1912, he became associated with the Hurst Hardware Company, and in his activities as clerk, driver of teams, shipping clerk and assistant bookkeeper he proved that his physical infirmity was slight handicap to progress. Mr. Hurst continued in the employ of the com- pany until it was merged with the Persinger Hardware & Furniture Company, and he then, in February, 1915, en- gaged in the real estate and insurance business, of which he has continued one of the progressive, representative and successful exponents at Williamson to the present time. He is the only surviving child of his parents, the other son, Frank, having died at birth, in 1902. The widowed mother, who was Freelove Thomas, of Emery, Virginia, still main- tains her home at Williamson, she being a zealous member of the First Presbyterian Church, as are also her son and his wife. On the 16th of June, 1919, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hurst and Miss Ethel Wiles, a daughter of William F. Wiles, a representative citizen of Tunnelton, West Virginia.