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Prof. Henry Ebenezer Hurd

Prof. Henry Ebenezer Hurd, Principal of the Business College and Professor of book-keeping and commercial law in the Upper Iowa University, is the senior professor in the above institution. He is a native of the Empire State, having been born in Herkimer County, June 25, 1843. He is of English and Scotch-Irish lineage, and has inherited the strong physical build of the former and the quick mental activity of the latter people. His grandfather, Ebenezer Hurd, emigrated from Connecticut to Herkimer County, N. Y., where the father of the Professor, Dr. A. E. Hurd, was born. The Doctor prepared himself for the medical profession first at Fairfield, N. Y., and later at Albany. In an early day he emigrated to Illinois, where he married Miss Persis Brown, a native of Massachusetts. Soon after his marriage, the Doctor returned with his young wife to his native State but in 1884 they again sought a home in Illinois, locating in Ogle County.

Prof. Hurd, who is the second of a family of seven children, six sons and a daughter, was but a year old at the time of the removal to Illinois. When seventeen years of age, we find him enrolled as a student at Wheaton College. On the 17th of May, 1864, Prof. Hurd joined the One Hundred Thirty-second Illinois Infantry, and followed the old flag until October 17, when he was honorably discharged. In December, 1864, he entered Eastman's Commercial College of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In 1867, he came to this city and established Hurd's National Business College of the Upper Iowa University, at the head of which he has since stood. He has taken an active part in building up the University, and the finances of the institution have been under his charge. Since 1874 there have been built three large edifices.

On the 2d of February, 1871, Prof. Hurd was united in marriage with Miss Henrietta, daughter of Hon. H. S. Brunson, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. The lady was born in LaFayette County, Wis., March 24, 1845, and by their union they have one child, a daughter, Persis J. The Professor and his wife are also rearing two interesting little girls, his brother's children. He is an earnest worker in the cause of temperance and when the prohibitory amendment was before the people of Iowa, labored untiringly for its adoption.