San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES E. HURD
A typical California pioneer,
representative of all the best qualities and elements of those sturdy settlers
is Charles E. Hurd.
The veterans of the old vanguard who made settlement in the sate fifty
years ago are few and constantly decreasing in number, and the deeds done in
those days of activity certainly deserve chronicling before the actors
themselves pass from the stage of life.
Of the eighty years of his life, Mr. Hurd has
spent the last fifty-eight in San Joaquin County, so that none have a more
intimate acquaintance with the development and upbuilding
of this portion of the state. He was
born at Conway, New Hampshire, on February 7, 1843, a son of Oliver S. and
Sarah Ann (Linsertt) Hurd. The father was a building contractor and
there were five children in the family:
Emma, Charles E., Elwell, William and Ann
Sarah. The father lived to be over
seventy years old, but the mother passed away when Charles E. was a lad of
seven. After his mother’s death he was
sent to Brownfield, Maine, where he was reared in various homes and attended
the district school in the winter and during the summer months worked for his
living. From the age of ten until he was
sixteen he lived with D. M. Bean and worked in his store when not in school and
from sixteen to the age of twenty-one he was a clerk in Mr. Bean’s store, with
the exception of nine months that he served in the Civil War in the 23rd
Maine Volunteer Infantry.
On February 26, 1864, he came to California
and settled near Stockton where he worked for five years on a dairy owned by J.
E. Moore, three miles out from Stockton and during that time was able to
accumulate sufficient means to go into the dairy business for himself and for
twenty-one years, he was so engaged, selling his products in Stockton. Some twenty years ago, Mr. Hurd purchased his present ranch of ten acres of Harney
Lane about two and a half miles southeast of Lodi, the ranch being devoted to
the growing of grapes, fruit and alfalfa.
He has also done considerable well boring throughout San Joaquin County.
The marriage of Mr. Hurd occurred at Stockton on February 1, 1870, and united
him with Miss Emma C. Kerr, a native of Miami, Ohio, a daughter of Dr. William
R. and Frances (Brown) Kerr. Dr. Kerr
came to California by the southern route and arrived in San Diego in 1849 and
in the spring of 1850 came to San Francisco and the next year to Stockton. At the Gila River, Dr. Kerr was obliged to
dispose of most of his baggage as the train was in danger of being hopelessly
mired in the river. Mrs. Hurd was an infant in arms when her parents crossed the
plains in 1849 and her father was a practicing physician and had one of the
finest drug stores in Stockton. Mrs. Hurd was educated in the El Dorado district school in
Stockton and later the Normal School and became a teacher in Merced
County. Her father owned a ranch on
Cherokee Lane and the family resided on it for forty years. Dr. Kerr and Dr. Kelsey, George and William
West helped in the organization of the Republican Party in San Joaquin County,
not an easy task in those days, as the county was mostly Democratic. Dr. Kerr passed away at the age of
forty-eight, but his wife lived to be ninety-four years old.
Mr. and Mrs. Hurd
are the parents of eight children:
Frances E., now Mrs. Manning of Oakland; Lila M., Clarence W., and
Charles; Ethel, now Mrs. Comfort of Stockton and she has one son, Hosmer; Lester resides at Westley;
Nellie married H. W. Bessac and they have three
children, Marian, Arthur and Francis; Alga is the wife of Dr. A. Carlton Smith
of the Oakland Emergency Hospital and they have one daughter, Alga
Margaret. Mr. Hurd
joined the Masons on February 26, 1864, entering Mt. Mariah Lodge at
Brownfield, Maine, and he has been a member ever since; at the age of seventy
this lodge presented him with a life diploma and membership. Politically Mr. Hurd
is a Republican and the family are members of the
Methodist Church.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
499. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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