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Below is a family biography included in The History of Cedar County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Samuel F. Hurt, who is closely associated with the farming and stock-raising interests of Cedar Township, was born in that township in 1842, and is the eldest of four sons and three daughters born to Burgess and Elizabeth (Davis) Hurt, natives of Adair County, Ky. The parents resided in their native State until 1842, when they moved to Cedar County, Mo., and located one mile west of where their son, Samuel F., is now living. About two years later they returned to Kentucky, resided there for three or four years, and then moved to St. Clair County, where they remained until the war, when they moved to Kansas. Here Mrs. Hurt died, and afterward Mr. Hurt returned to St. Clair County, where he died in 1888. He was a blacksmith by trade and a farmer by occupation; His father, William Hurt, was probably a native of Virginia, and died in Adair County, Ky. He was of French descent; was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was sheriff of Adair County for a number of years. Samuel F. Hurt received a limited education, owing to the scarcity of schools, but was attending Fairview College when the war broke out. In 1863 he joined Company I, Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and remained with this company until the close of the war, serving most of the time on the plains of Western Kansas. He was sergeant the latter part of the war, and was wounded once by a gun shot. He was married in St. Clair County, Mo., in 1866, to Miss Mary, daughter of William and Nancy Dudley, and a native of St. Clair County. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley were born in Virginia and Kentucky, respectively, but were early settlers of St. Clair County, where they are living at the present time, and where Mr. Dudley is engaged in tilling the soil. To Mr. Hurt and wife were born three children, one son and two daughters. Mr. Hurt resided in St. Clair County until about 1877, and then moved to Cedar County, locating on his present farm, which consists of over nine hundred acres, and is considered one of the finest tracts of land in the county. He was collector of Washington Township, St. Clair County, two years; is a Democrat in politics, casting his first presidential vote for McClellan; is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Lodge No. 342, and has been master of the same for about two years. He and wife have been members of the Christian Church for many years.

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This family biography is one of 92 biographies included in The History of Cedar County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Cedar County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Cedar County, Missouri family biographies: Cedar County, Missouri Biographies

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