The Payette Enterprise
Thursday, May 01, 1913
Aged Pioneer Passes Away
F. F. Hurd, After a Residence in Idaho of Thirty-One Years Answers the Final summons One of Valley's Most Respected Citizens.
There was indeed general sorrow in Payette Friday afternoon of last week when the word came to town that F. F. Hurd had passed away at his home two miles east of Payette and while for some time he had been in poor health and had reached the advanced age of seventy seven years and for several days past his friends had known him to be very low, yet the actual news that he had answered the final summons came as a distinct shock. For thirty-one years F. F. Hurd has been a resident of Payette Valley and the end found him still occupying the homestead he filed on when he first came to Idaho. His was a busy life. Coming as he did before the advent of the railroad he knew and experienced all of the privations and hardships of the pioneer but lived to see the earnest work of those who came with him bring forth fruit and the sage brush waste which greeted their eyes blossom forth into richly ladened orchards and fields of grain and alfalfa. He was a man of kindly disposition and earnest convictions, a father in all that the name implies and a neighbor that had the universal respect and confidence of all who knew him. Many will miss his genial smile and kindly greetings.
F. F. Hurd was born in New York state May 30, 1836, being the oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Perley P. Hurd. Of the seven children in this family four girls and three boys all have passed away but one sister now residing in South Dakota. In 1841 Mr. Hurd's parents left New York state and moved to Illinois where in 1857 Mr. Hurd was united in marriage to Miss Permelia Walters, of Rochelle, Illinois. Eight children blessed this union, four girls and four boys, one girl dying in Illinois. The remaining children and mother who are left to mourn his loss all live in and near Payette, Mrs. Robt. M. Turner at Ontario, Mrs. Chas. Duell and Mrs. A. H. Ramey near Fruitland, Drs. R. B. and W. C. Hurd, engaged in the practice of veterinary live in Payette while F. E. and F. S. Hurd reside on the home ranch.
Living in Illinois until 1880 Mr. Hurd then moved to Firth, Nebraska, where he lived until 1882 when he pushed farther west and came to Idaho locating in Payette Valley living for a time with his son Frank until the arrival of his family when he took up a homestead two miles east of Payette where he resided until the time of his death.
The funeral services were conducted Sunday at the home by Rev. Henry Van Engelen of the Baptist church and accompanied by a large throng of friends who had known and appreciated him during life for his sterling qualities. The remains were laid to rest in Riverside cemetery.
