Hurst, Charles R.

Born: 1811-09-20 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Died: 1881-06-14 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: Springfield, Illinois

Hurst settled in Springfield, Illinois in March 1834. Initially employed as a clerk by the Bell & Tinsley dry-goods firm, he purchased Joshua F. Speed's mercantile business in 1841. The same year, Hurst married Ann Taylor, and together they had six children. Hurst also served as a Springfield alderman and on the city's water commission.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 393; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Menard County, 26 May 1841, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Joshua F. Speed to William H. Herndon, 17 September 1866, Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, eds., Herndon’s Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 342; Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 15 June 1881, 6:3.