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Christopher Hurlbut, Jr., whose portrait is here pre- 

 sented, was born in Wyoming Valley, Pa., Dec. 17, 1794, and 

 was next to the youngest of a family of eight children, seven 

 of whom lived to a mature age. He married Ellen Tiffany, 

 of Palmyra, N. Y., June 4, 1823, by whom he had six chil- 

 dren, Myron, Edmund, Lydia, Nancy, Elizabeth, and Abigail. 

 He was a farmer, and a man of unblemished character, and 

 died Eeb. 8, 1875, having lived seventy-seven years on the 

 ^'old Hurlbut homestead," in Arkport. 



As Christopher Hurlbut, Sr., was the head of the family 

 here, and the founder of the village of Arkport, a more 

 minute history of him is given. 



He was born in Groton, Conn., May 30, 1757, and died in 

 Arkport, IST. Y., April 21, 1831. He descended in the follow- 

 ing direct line from English ancestors : John, Jr., John, Sr., 

 Stephen, Samuel, and "Lieut. Thomas Hurlbut, who came 

 front England about 1630, and settled in Connecticut. 



April 3, 1776, Christopher enlisted in the Continental army 

 and served under the immediate command of Gen. Washing- 

 tQp..^ In 1777 he visited Wyoming Yalley. In February, 

 1778, he left Groton for Hanover, Luzerne Co., Pa., to pre- 

 pare a home for his father's family, and returned in June to 

 assist in moving them to the valley. When they arrived 

 at Lackawasen, on the Delaware, they were met by the 

 fugitives flying from the " Wyoming massacre," which put a 

 stop to their further progress for that season. Christopher 

 helped bury the victims of the '' massacre," and the family in 

 Kovember, 1779, settled in their new home in Hanover. In 

 1782 he married Elizabeth Mann, of Wysox, Pa. Their chil- 

 dren were Abigail, John, James, Sarah, Elizabeth, Nancy, 

 Christopher, and Edward; all but the latter were born in 

 Hanover, Pa. In 1789 he was appointed by Governor 

 Miflain, of Pennsylvania, judge for the county of Luzerne 

 for seven years ; and in 1791 he received the appointment by 

 the same Governor of ''justice of the peace for the district of 

 Wilkesbarre," which office he held until he moved from the 

 State. 



While living in Pennsylvania he was a j)rominent actor in 

 the stirring scenes of the valley which followed the historic 

 battle of July 3, 1778. Of him, George Peck, D.D., the 



historian of Wyoming Yalley, says: ''Mr. Hurlbut was a 

 man for the times, of more than usual education ; a good 

 mathematician, and a practical surveyor. His plots of large 

 tracts of land surveyed by him in the county of Luzerne are 

 acknoAvledged data." 



In 1796 he visited "the Genesee country," and purchased 

 a large tract of choice land at the head of the Canisteo Yalley 

 (now Arkport), known as great lots Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 13, in 

 the Gore. The following spring he erected a small log house, 

 and in August, 1797, left Wyoming Yalley with his family in 

 a Durham boat, and ascended the Susquehanna as far as 

 Tioga Point; from there by land to his new home, five miles 

 from the nearest white inhabitant. About 1800 he built a 

 saw-mill and store-house, and in 1801, or the spring of 1802, 

 he ran the first arks ever taken down the Canisteo. 



The first years of the present century were spent by him in 

 clearing his farm and developing the country. He laid out 

 and improved roads in every direction from Arkport ; obtained 

 the passage of an act by the Legislature of this State making 

 the Canisteo River a "public highway," and made it a 

 channel of commerce down whose waters were borne much 

 of the products of " the Genesee country." 



He built a large hotel and farm-house in 1805-6, which is 

 still in good repair, and about 1815 a carding and cloth 

 dressing mill ; he also bought about the same date a large tract 

 of pine timbered land in what is now Perkinsville, Steuben 

 Co., on which he built a saw-mill. He filled various 

 offices in the town of Canisteo, and was appointed judge of 

 Steuben County. In the law creating the " Erie Turnpike 

 Company" he was named as one of the three commissioners to 

 locate and construct the road, a work of much labor and ex- 

 pense, but of great importance to the country. Public im- 

 provements, public schools, and public morals found in him 

 an efficient advocate and worker. In religion he was a 

 Presbyterian, as were his ancestors, and as are his descend- 

 ants. In politics he was a Whig of olden times. 



His children settled in this valley and vicinity, except 

 jNancy, who married Ziba Hoyt in 1815, and moved back 

 to Wyoming Yalley to become the mother, in 1830, of Henry 

 M. Hoyt, the present Governor of Pennsylvania. 



