William Hurt

A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA with the rank of Private. DAR Ancestor # A061173

William served in the Revolutionary War and is well documented in "Tidewater to Texas: The Hurt Family History" by Ronald Wayne Hurt

William was a Revolutionary War Veteran. He served in the 14th Regiment of Virginia Continentals.

The following account has been taken from Rollin Hurt's notebook written in the year of 1907 by him. He was a grandson of William Hurt.

"During his time as a soldier, he spent one winter at Valley Forge where his feet were severely frost-bitten. He did not entirely recover from the effects of his exposure during his entire life.

Shortly after the Revolution ended he went to Kentucky and resided in Bourbon County. On making a journey to his old home in Virginia he spent a night in the house of John Fields. It was here that he became acquainted with Sarah (White) Fields and very shortly thereafter they married and she returned to Kentucky with him.

The deed which is of record in the Adair County Courts clerks office shows that he (William HURT) purchased 540 acres of land for the sum of one hundred pounds and Anderson made acknowledgment of the deed before the Fayette County court. He spells the word Kentucky, at that time, 1792, as follows viz.; "Cantucky." After he purchased the land above mentioned, William came to live upon it bringing with him his stepson, John FIELDS, and two Negroes whose names were Thomas and Rebecca.

The first clearing made upon the farm was upon the hill between the lane and the bluff near the sinking branch and upon the right hand as you go from the Crocus road to the dwelling house. At this point, in the fall of the year 1793, william, with the assistance of John FIELDS and the Negro Thomas, cleared a patch of land and erected a cabin. In the winter of 1793 or 1794, my grandfather returned to Bourbon County to bring his family and his household effects, leaving John FIELDS and the Negroes to continue the work.

In the spring of 1794 William returned from Bourbon with his family and a cart drawn by a yoke of oxen. This was the first wheeled vehicle used or brought into the county and he was the first man to open and live on a farm unprotected by a stockade or blockhouse in Adair County. His only and nearest neighbor was Colonel William Casey. His journey from Bourbon County was made by way of Greensburg, where at that time, there was a frontier fort. A party accompanied him as far as Greensburg to assist in opening the way for the cart, as well as to protect him from the Indians.

At this point he was met by Captain John Butler, Champ Farris, Samuel White and others who were then residents of Adair County and the persons accompanying him then turned back. When they camped for the night William told the men that in the bottom of the cart was several pieces of bacon and a keg of whiskey. The men had not tasted bacon in several years, they having lived during that time on wild meat of the forests, they unloaded the cart, drank the whiskey and ate the bacon without cooking it, so keen was their desire to again taste the food of civilized life. The result was that all became intoxicated and while in this condition a party of Indians came upon them, killed Farris and dispersed the others. They escaped with difficulty and had a hard time in driving away the Indians. The men then escorted William and family to their new farm.

After this beginning settlers came fast and in a very few years a great many had come. Among those who came and resided near to him were Capt. Thomas White, Jesse White, John C. White and Garnett Conover, the last named was then called Garnett Govenhofer.

In those early days, the buffaloes sometimes came up with his cattle. He seems to have been a very prosperous man and in a few years was the owner of twenty or more slaves. He was a wheelwright, which in that time was a very lucrative employment. He was also a distiller of whiskey and brandy and the old stone walls of his distillery, which stood west of the dwelling house upon his farm about 250 yards from the house and just beside where the Crocus road were formerly located.

An old neighbor of his in Bourbon County by the name of Conover apprenticed two of his sons about the year 1802 or 1803, he removed to the town of Columbia, where he kept a hotel.

In the year 1810 William Hurt built a grist mill upon Petitt's Fork just below the Cedar Cliff.

About the year 1803 or 04 William erected a dwelling house that was a two story, house of logs, sealed and weather-boarded and had a cellar underneath. Wooden planks were sawed out from the logs with whipsaws. Cyrus Montgomery has stated that when he was a boy, this house was the talk of the neighborhood-being regarded as a very fine house. This house had a very large log kitchen, which according to the custom of the times, was situated some distance from the house, and between it and the spring. The front of this house when first erected was to the West. Afterward when the Crocus road was changed, the front of the house was changed to the East. This farm was owned continuously by members of the family from the year 1793 until 1904. The North side of the dwelling house and between it and the bluffs of the Sinking branch was an apple orchard of very large trees. All of these trees have long since disappeared.

The first cucumber known to have been grown in the neighborhood was grown near the spring in the Roper field upon said farm. Alban Hurt was then a small boy and had received very explicit directions not to pull the cucumber. Shortly, however, the cucumber was observed to be missing. Alban was suspicioned as being the thief, and being pressed confessed his guilt. He, however confidently relied upon escaping punishment, by insisting he had only been warned not to pull the cucumber and that he had not done so - that he had lain down and eaten it from the vine.

William was a very partisan Democrat in politics and in the year, 1800, rode from his home to Greensburg, a distance of 20 miles, to cast his vote for the electors for Mr. Jefferson, in his first race for President. In religion William was a Baptist, until the coming of the Church of the Disciples or Reformed Church, when in his old age he attached himself to this Church.

His first wife died in the year 1814 and in the year 1817 he married a second time. His second wife was Elizabeth MCMURRAY, who at the time of their marriage resided in Barren County where Fisticuff fights were the custom of that day. John C. White, a neighbor, was a great and successful fighter and had never been bested by any one in the County.

William sent to Virginia for Hugh Douglas (a man of this name, married Mildred HURT, a daughter of William HURT. Probably the same man.) who was a renowned pugilist and offered him the sum of $500 which was a large sum of money at that time, if he would come out to Kentucky and whip White. Douglas came and he and William went to where White was engaged with the other neighbors in building a house.The challenge to fight was accepted and both men stripped to the waist. White with his first blow knocked Douglas to the ground but he recovered and gave White a severe beating. William then paid Douglas the $500 and he returned to Virginia. It is said that when Douglas fell at White's first blow, William said, "Tutt, tutt you scoundrel, I will not pay you a cent." "

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via sister Susannah Hurt by SmartCopy: Jan 22 2015, 17:19:18 UTC

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for Revolutionary War service: http://sarhstchapter.tripod.com/hurt.html