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ADRIAN J. GURNEY

One of the many residents of Fayette county who came here from the Buckeye state is Adrian J. Gurney, assistant cashier of the State Bank of West Union. He was born at Chester, Geauga county, Ohio, August 1, 1860, and is the son of James R. and Matilda (Hulbert) Gurney, the father a native of Massachusetts and the mother of Ohio, the mother dying when Adrian J. was three years old; one other child was born to them, Meradon, who died in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874, at the age of twenty-one years. James R. Gurney's second wife was Sallie P. Rudd, a native of New York; no children were born to the last union. The elder Gurney, who is now a resident of West Union, Iowa, has devoted his life to farming, first in Ohio, coming to Iowa in 1878.

 Adrian Gurney was educated in the Public schools of Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1879 he came to Iowa and located on the parental farm near Manchester, Delaware county, assisting in developing a farm from the primitive state. He remained there until 1881, and went to Brush Creek (now known as Arlington) and entered the employ of Rawson & Rice, bankers and stock dealers, remaining with them three years, and he spent one year in a bank at Earlville, Iowa. He came from Arlington to West Union in 1885 and was bookkeeper in the Bank of West Union for about twenty years; he was also teller and for five years was assistant cashier.

Mr. Gurney married, on September 24, 1884, Allie 0. Hayes, a native of Oregon, Wisconsin, where she was reared and educated. This union has been blessed by the birth of one son, Forrest H., born November 19, 1890, who graduated from the local high school with the class of 1910, and is now in the State University at Iowa City, Iowa.

Mr. Gurney is a member of West Union Lodge No. 69, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, also belongs to the Ansel Humphreys Chapter. No. 80, Royal Arch Masons, and the Langridge Commandery No. 47, Knights Templar, also the Knights of Pythias. Politically, he is a Republican. He served as city treasurer of West Union for ten consecutive years, then after a time was re-elected and is at present serving in that capacity. He is a member of the board of education.

In 1907 Mr. Gurney's health failed for a number of months, and he was given a summer's vacation on full pay, a tangible recognition of his worth to the bank and one which he fully appreciated. 

~transcribed for the Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Doris A. Smith