My Genealogy Hound

THOMAS HURST, retail liquor dealer of Cannelton was born in Jacksonville, Ill., October 11, 1848. He is one of eleven children born to the marriage of James S. Hurst and Mary A. Payne, both natives of Kentucky and of Irish descent. He remained in his native town until he was fourteen years old, when he went to Hannibal, Mo., with the intention of becoming a veterinary surgeon. He remained there only a few months, and after visiting several other towns returned home and clerked in his cousin’s shoe store for two years. At his country’s first call for troops he enlisted in Company G, Tenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry for three months, and at the expiration of that time re-enlisted in Company K, Second Illinois Artillery. July 6, 1863, he was placed in the secret service department, in which he served until receiving his discharge January 14, 1865. After the war he lived at Natchez for two years, and then came to this county where he has resided ever since, with the exception of three years spent in Louisville. In 1878 he engaged in the retail liquor business at Leopold where he remained until 1883, when he came to Cannelton and established himself in the same business. He has been very successful, and during the seven years in which he has been in the business, he has never taken a glass of intoxicating liquor. December 21, 1863, he married Margaret (Lambert) Murray.