1. Matilda Hurst was born 9 March 1806 in Wythe County, Virginia. In a family group sheet that Gwen Hurst sent me in June 1993, Matilda and her birthdate are listed with a question mark next to Matilda’s name. The chart cites as its source for Matilda and her birthdate the bible of Matilda’s sister Nancy Hurst Southern, of which Gwen had a transcript from an unidentified letter. Note that the January 1857 will of William Hurst does not name a daughter Matilda, so if it’s correct that William and Mildred Whitlock Hurst had a daughter Matilda, their first-born child, she evidently predeceased her father. I have found no other record of her. Various online family trees try to turn other of Mildred and William’s daughters into Matilda this or that, conflating this first daughter Matilda with another known daughter and giving that daughter the middle or first name Matilda. I’ve seen no record supporting such a conflation, and I continue to wonder why people will do this kind of thing in their family trees.

2. Nancy Hurst was born 7 November 1807 in Wythe County. On 1 December 1825 in Wythe County, Nancy married William C. Suthern. The family name was commonly spelled Southern, though it appears in William Hurst’s will and other Wythe County records as Suthern. According to Gwen Hurst’s notes, citing the transcript of Nancy’s bible I’ve just mentioned, Nancy died 5 November 1891 in Pulaski County, Virginia. The 1872 death register of Pulaski County shows William C. Southern dying in Hiwassee township on 18 December 1872, aged 65, and states that his parents were Robert and N. Southern.^[2] Hiwassee is just east of the New River and a bit north of Allisonia in Pulaski County.

According to B.D. Scott, William C. Southern was born 6 May 1806 in Tennessee.^[3] William Southern’s father Robert, who was a Baptist minister, was living in Claiborne County in northeastern Tennessee on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line at the time William was born, so it’s thought he was born there. Robert’s wife, the N. Southern stated as William C. Southern’s mother on his death register listing, was Nancy Neal or Neil.

Scott gives Nancy Hurst Southern a death date of 11 May 1891 instead of the 5 November 1891 date Gwen Hurst cites. As he notes, Nancy’s sister Virginia married William’s brother Uriah, and Scott thinks Nancy and Virginia’s father William Hurst married Uriah and William Southern’s sister Sallie following Mildred Whitlock’s death, but this is not correct. Sarah Southern did marry a William Hurst, but her husband was William “Trigger Bill” Hurst, son of John “Mill Creek” Hurst discussed in the previous posting, an uncle of William “Big Bill” Hurst, who married Mildred Whitlock. The William Hurst who married Mildred Whitlock did not remarry after Mildred’s death.

I’ve found no burial information for William C. Southern and wife Nancy Hurst Southern. A number of family trees published online state that William’s full name was William Carnahan Southern. I haven’t seen a document spelling out his middle name beyond the initial C.

3. Elizabeth M. Hurst was born about 1808 in Wythe County. Gwen Hurst’s notes base this date on the fact that the 1860 federal census shows her born in 1808, though the 1850 federal census assigns her a birth year of 1810. She was born between sisters Nancy (born 7 November 1807) and Lucinda (born 18 June 1812). On 8 February 1833 in Wythe County, Elizabeth married William B. Carnahan.^[4] Her father’s 22 January 1857 will in Wythe County states that she and her husband (only his surname, Carnahan, is given in the will) were living on land in Pulaski County, Virginia, that belonged to William Hurst, and which the will bequeaths to them.^[5]

I don’t find a record of Elizabeth after her appearance in Pulaski County on the 1860 census. William B. Carnahan died in Hiwassee township in Pulaski County on 3 April 1864, with his death register listing stating that he was 57 years old, son of John and Elizabeth Carnahan, and had been born in Wythe County, Virginia.^[6] The death register listing gives his wife’s name as Elizabeth Carnahan, suggesting to me she was alive at that date. The family member who provided this information was William and Elizabeth’s son-in-law Jesse T. Harris.

Since I don’t find Elizabeth on the 1870 federal census, think she may have died between 3 April 1864 and 1870. I have not found a burial record for Elizabeth or William B. Carnahan. The 1860 federal census shows them living in Hiwassee township in Pulaski next to her sister Virginia and husband Uriah Southern, brother of William C. Southern (as stated above), who married Elizabeth and Virginia’s sister Nancy. As noted previously, William C. Southern also died in Hiwassee township in Pulaski County. 

4. Lucinda Hannah Hurst was born 18 June 1812 in Wythe County. On 16 December 1835 in Wythe County, she married Samuel Hurst. As the previous posting states, Gwen Hurst thought that Samuel was son of William Hurst and Rachel Cummins, who married in Loudon County, Virginia, in 1798. Samuel was born 9 October 1808 in Wythe County. These birth and marriage dates are from notes of Gwen Hurst, citing for the marriage date a bible of Lucinda’s sister Virginia Hurst Southern. According to Gwen Hurst, Samuel died 9 May 1881 in Wythe County, and Lucinda died 8 August 1899 in Wythe County. 

These dates of birth, marriage, and death also appear on Find a Grave memorial pages for both Samuel and Lucinda, giving Samuel a middle name Isaac. These pages, created by their 3-great-granddaughter Deborah Shelton Wood, state that both are buried in Tipton cemetery at Hiwassee in Pulaski County, though Gwen Hurst thought the couple were buried in the old Lawrence Stephens cemetery in Wythe County discussed in the previous posting.^[7] The death certificate of Samuel and Lucinda’s daughter Rachel Clementine Hurst Owen, who died in Roanoke, Virginia, on 17 February 1931, states that her parents were Samuel I. Hirst [sic] and Lucinda Hannah Hurst.^[8] The informant was Rachel’s daughter Lucy.

As the previous posting shows, in the year of his death, 1860, Lucinda’s father William Hurst was living with Samuel and Lucinda in Wythe County, and William’s January 1857 will made Samuel his executor.^[9] The linked posting also shows that on 3 September 1842, William and Mildred Whitlock Hurst sold Samuel and Lucinda Hurst 139 acres on Little Reed Island Creek in Wythe County that seems to have been land Mildred’s father Thomas Whitlock entered on 8 November 1782, and which joined what was Thomas’s homeplace in Wythe County.^[10]

Samuel died testate in Wythe County with a will dated 8 May 1881, leaving his property to wife Lucinda and after her decease to heirs Cassandra M. Breeding, J.M. Hurst, the children of Sarah E. Tipton, Lucinda W. Williams, and Rachel C. Owens.^[11]

5. Allen Whitlock Hurst was born 21 January 1816 in Wythe County. On 5 September 1846 in Pulaski County, he married Rebecca Ashworth, daughter of Samuel Ashworth and Elizabeth Brizendine.^[12] Allen died 26 October 1891 in Wythe County. Rebecca was born 11 October 1816 and died 21 March 1873 in Wythe County. These dates of birth, marriage, and death are from Gwen Hurst’s notes, which say that she had photographs of the tombstones of Allen and wife Rebecca, but do not specify that she was transcribing birth and death dates from those tombstones. 

Allen’s death date is recorded in Wythe County’s death registry, with his son Charles Whitlock Hurst as informant.^[13] This notes that he died at Reed Island in Wythe County on 26 October 1891, aged 76, and was son of William and “Millard” Hurst.

Allen and Rebecca are buried at the Hurst cemetery at Barren Springs in Wythe County. Their Find a Grave memorial pages give the same dates of birth and death and have a biographical statement (in the case of Allen’s page) giving the date and place of marriage stated above.^[14] Rebecca’s memorial page has a photo of her tombstone, which does give the dates of birth and death stated above.

As the previous posting states, the 1850 federal census shows Allen and wife Rebecca and their family living next to William and Mildred Whitlock Hurst, with Allen’s younger brother William living with his parents. This arrangement suggests to me that Allen (who has no real worth on this census) was farming his father’s land along with his brother William at that time. As the linked posting also shows, William Hurst’s will leaves his son Allen the land on which Allen was living when the will was made in January 1857, noting that William had bought these two tracts from James Calfee and the Breedings.^[15] The same posting shows that William Hurst bought from James Calfee, who was married to Hannah Whitlock, niece of William’s wife Mildred, two pieces of land amounting to 299½ acres on Little Reed Island Creek on 19 September 1831.^[16] Of this land, 199½ acres had been deeded by Thomas Whitlock and wife Hannah Phillips to Hannah Whitlock and her sister Agnes on 11 May 1805.^[17] It was land belonging to Thomas Whitlock on which his son Charles lived with wife Mary Davies and daughters Agnes and Hannah up to Charles’s death in April 1796, and on which Mary and her children continued living after Charles died.

The piece of land from the Breedings that William Hurst bequeathed to son Allen was a tract of 30 acres on Little Reed Island Creek that he bought on 1 March 1835 from Rhoda, James, and Stephen Breeding.^[18] The deed for this land says it adjoined other land owned by William Hurst and on which it appears he was living.

When William Hurst died 15 December 1860 in Wythe County, it was his son Allen who provided the information recorded in the death entry for William in Wythe County’s register of deaths.^[19]

6. Virginia Hurst was born, according to Gwen Hurst’s notes, on 23 January 1823 in Wythe County, and died 28 March 1907 in Pulaski County.^[20] For these dates, Gwen Hurst’s notes tell me she was citing Virginia’s tombstone in Hurst cemetery, Pulaski County, Virginia, of which I have not seen a photograph or transcription. Note that the tombstone of Virginia’s sister Joanah Hurst Boyd shows her born 18 March 1823 (see below). If one of these dates is correct, the other cannot be.

When she filed an application for a pension for her husband Uriah Southern’s Civil War service on 30 May 1900 (this document is discussed below), Virginia gave her age as 82, which would indicate a birth year of 1818. The 1850 federal census has her born in 1817, the 1860 in 1823, the 1870 in 1818, the 1880 in 1820, and the 1900 census in May 1820. Based on all these pieces of information, I’d definitely rule out an 1823 birth year. 

On 13 August 1839 in Wythe County, Uriah Southern gave bond with Virginia’s father William Hurst for his marriage to Virginia Hurst.^[21] As stated above, Uriah was a son of Robert and Nancy Neal/Neil Southern and a brother to William C. Hurst who married Virginia’s sister Nancy. Federal censuses in 1850, 1870, and 1880 place Uriah’s birth in 1816; the 1860 federal census has him born in 1817. The 1850 and 1880 censuses state that he was born in Tennessee, the 1860 and 1870 censuses, in Virginia. According to B.D. Scott, Uriah was born in 1816 in Claiborne County, Tennessee.^[22]

As the previous posting notes, when Virginia’s father William Hurst made his will in Wythe County in January 1857, Uriah and Virginia were living in Pulaski County on land belonging to her father, which William Hurst bequeathed to them in his will.^[23] This land was in Hiwassee township.

According to a pension application filed by Uriah’s widow Virginia on 30 May 1900 in Pulaski County for his Civil War service in Preston’s regiment of the 4^th Virginia Reserves (CSA), Uriah died in April 1892 near Allisonia in Pulaski County.^[24] As stated previously, Allisonia was near Hiwassee township in which Uriah and Virginia lived. B.D. Scott gives Uriah’s date of death as 25 April 1890 instead of the 1892 stated by Virginia in her Confederate pension application, and states that Uriah is buried at Big Reed Island in Pulaski County.^[25] Scott concurs with Gwen Hurst that Virginia is buried in the Hurst cemetery at Hiwassee in Pulaski County. 

7. Joanah Hurst was born 18 March 1823 in Wythe County. This date is inscribed on her tombstone in Hurst cemetery at Barren Springs in Wythe County.^[26] But note the preceding discussion of the birthdate of Joanah’s sister Virginia, who is said by some sources to have been born in January 1823: as stated above, if one of these dates is correct, the other cannot be correct. I’m inclined to trust the evidence of Joanah’s tombstone and conclude that her sister Virginia may have been born 1818-1820 and not in 1823.

According to Gwen Hurst, Joanah married James Boyd on 15 January 1845. I do not have a record of the source of this information or where the marriage took place. I do not find it in Wythe County marriage record books, and Pulaski County marriage record books for this date are sketchy. Ted Collins’s Collins family tree at Rootsweb has the same date of marriage, also citing no source, and says that the marriage took place in Wythe County.^[27] James was the son of Andrew Boyd and Jemima Ingram.

As the previous posting notes, the will of Joanah’s father William Hurst bequeathed to his daughter Joanah Boyd land in Carroll County known as the Hardy place.^[28] Joanah and husband James Boyd may have been living on that land by the time the will was made, since the 1850 federal census shows them in Carroll County with two Hardy families listed on the same page three families from the Boyds.^[29] The census states that both James P. Boyd (he has this middle initial here) and wife “Jemema” were born in Wythe County.

Joanah’s tombstone states that she died 26 May 1881. I think it’s likely she died in Carroll County where the family is enumerated at Pine Creek in 1880. James is buried in Hurst cemetery at Barren Springs along with wife Joanah, with his tombstone stating that he was born 28 February 1824 and died 17 July 1910.^[30] His Find a Grave memorial page gives his middle name as Patton.

8. William Floyd Hurst was born 13 January 1829 in Wythe County. This date and place of birth are stated on his death certificate in Pulaski County, where he died on 13 July 1917.^[31] The name of the informant is left blank. The death certificate gives William’s full name as William Floyd Hurst and states that his parents were William Hurst, born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and Mildred Whitlock, born in Wythe County, Virginia.

On 30 April 1857 in Surry County, North Carolina, William gave bond with Allen Denny to marry Mary Elizabeth Stephens, daughter of Joseph Stephens and Isabella Longacre.^[32] Gwen Hurst’s notes state that Mary Elizabeth is buried in the old Lawrence Stephens cemetery in Wythe County, with a tombstone stating that she died 2 February 1883, aged 48 years, 6 months, 26 days. A Find a Grave memorial page for Mary Elizabeth states that her burial place is unknown, and that she was born 4 July 1834 in Wythe County and died on the date I’ve just stated.^[33]

As the previous posting states, William’s parents William and Mildred Whitlock Hurst deeded land in Wythe County to him on 2 February 1853, and on 11 May 1854, they quitclaimed to their son William F. Hurst their rights to land known as the Peak place in Carroll County, with this document noting that William was then living in Carroll County.^[34] Carroll County borders Surry County, North Carolina, where William F. Hurst married in 1857, on the north. The will of William Hurst in January 1857 names William F. Hurst without specifying he was William’s son, and specifies that William F. Hurst’s sister Joanah Boyd is to pay money to William F. Hurst as a stipulation regarding property the will leaves to Joanah.^[35]

Following Mary Elizabeth Stephens Hurst’s death on 2 February 1883, William Floyd Hurst remarried to Martha Marie Deyerle, daughter of Thomas J. Deyerle and Mildred T. Moon, on 24 December 1894 in Wythe County.^[36] Martha was born 7 October 1852 in Montgomery County and died 20 October 1918 at Charlottesville in Albemarle County. Martha is buried in Ivy Creek cemetery in Albemarle County with a tombstone stating her dates of birth and death.^[37] A death notice for Martha in Richmond Times-Dispatchon 23 October 1918 states that she was the widow of Floyd H. [sic] Hurst of Pulaski, Virginia, and had died that morning at the home of her brother L. Deyerle of Hydraulic in Albemarle County.^[38]

William Floyd Hurst’s death certificate states that he was buried at Barren Springs, Virginia.^[39] This indicates to me that he’s buried in the Hurst cemetery at Barren Springs in Wythe County, in which his brother Allen and sister Joanah are buried with their spouses.

According to Gwen Hurst, William Hurst and Mildred Whitlock had a son Charles about which her notes provide no information. I find no record of this son and suspect this may be a mistake. Allen Whitlock Hurst had a son named Charles Whitlock Hurst, and I think he may have erroneously been listed in Gwen’s records as a son of William and Mildred Whitlock Hurst.

---

^[1] Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 10, pp. 83-4.

^[2] Pulaski County, Virginia, Death Register 1872 (unpaginated), Hiwassee township, available digitally at FamilySearch.

^[3] B.D. Scott, Robert Southern, 1780-1837 of Claiborne County, Tennessee and His Wife, Nancy Neil Including Collateral and Allied Families (Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen, 1996), p. 4.

^[4] Wythe County, Virginia, Marriage Records Bk. 1, p. 118. This is a typed transcription of the original marriage return by Presbyterian minister Rev. George Painter, giving the date on which he married the couple and spelling Elizabeth’s surname as Hurt.

^[5] See supra, n. 1.

^[6] Pulaski County, Virginia, Death Register 1864 (unpaginated), Hiwassee township, available digitally at FamilySearch. 

^[7] See Find a Grave memorial pages of Samuel Isaac Hurst and Lucinda Hurst, Tipton cemetery, Hiwassee, Pulaski County, Virginia, created by Deborah Shelton Wood, maintained by Joy.

^[8] Virginia Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Roanoke, Virginia, death certificates 1931, # 143, available digitally in Ancestry database Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014.

^[9] See supra, n. 1.

^[10] Wythe County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 15, pp. 613-4.

^[11] Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 13, pp. 425-6.

^[12] See Ancestry database Virginia, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1740-1850.

^[13] Wythe County, Virginia, Register of Deaths 1891 (unpaginated), Eastern district, #69, available digitally at FamilySearch.

^[14] See Find a Grave memorial pages of Allen Whitlock Hurst and Rebecca Ashworth Hurst, Hurst cemetery, Barren Springs, Wythe County, Virginia, created by Sue Hale Sheppard, with a photo of Rebecca’s tombstone by IxieVerns.

^[15] See supra, n. 1. 

^[16] Wythe County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 12, pp. 137-8.

^[17] Ibid., Bk. 4, pp. 291-2.

^[18] Ibid., Bk. 13, p. 167-9.

^[19] Wythe County, Virginia, Death Register 1860, unpaginated, digitized at FamilySearch.

^[20] The dates are from Gwen Hurst’s notes to me, citing Virginia’s tombstone in Hurst cemetery, Pulaski County, Virginia.

^[21] Wythe County, Virginia, Marriage Records Bk. 1, p. 143.

^[22] Scott, Robert Southern, 1780-1837 of Claiborne County, Tennessee, p. 7.

^[23] See supra, n. 1.

^[24] Virginia Department of Accounts, Confederate Pension Applications, Veterans and Widows, application of Virginia Southern, available digitally at Library of Virginia website.

^[25] Scott, Robert Southern, 1780-1837 of Claiborne County, Tennessee, p. 7.

^[26] See Find a Grave memorial page of Joanah Hurst Boyd, Hurst cemetery, Barren Springs, Wythe County, Virginia, created by Sue Hale Sheppard, with a tombstone photo by IxieVerns.

^[27] Ted Collins, “My COLLINS Genealogical Research, etc.” at Rootsweb. 

^[28] See supra, n. 1.

^[29] 1850 federal census, Carroll County, Virginia, p. 317B (dwelling/family 15; 10 July).

^[30] See Find a Grave memorial page of James Patton Boyd, Hurst cemetery, Barren Springs, Wythe County, Virginia, created by Sue Hale Sheppard, with a tombstone photo by IxieVerns.

^[31] Virginia Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Pulaski County, Virginia, death certificates 1917, #18335, available digitally in Ancestry database Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014.

^[32] Surry County, North Carolina, Marriage Bonds H, 1780-1868, available digitally at FamilySearch.

^[33] See Find a Grave memorial page for Mary Elizabeth Stephens Hurst, created by Young Stephens, Deborah, and maintained by 49493846.

^[34] Wythe County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 19, pp. 553-4; Carroll County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 4, pp. 141-2.

^[35] See supra, n. 1.

^[36] Wythe County, Virginia, Marriage Register 1894, p. 451.

^[37] See Find a Grave memorial page of Martha Marie Deyerle Hurst, created by JEM, maintained by LNM, with a tombstone photo by JEM.

^[38] “Mrs. Martha Hurst,” Richmond Times-Dispatch (23 October 1918), p. 2, col. 3.

^[39] See supra, n. 31.