Hurst

of Louisiana. Charges of corruption brought
against him apparently had solid foundation
(Chicago Tribune, Nov. i, 1872; Clark vs.
United States, 102 U. S. Reports, 322). He was
mustered out June 20, 1865.

Upon his return to civil life, he became a Re-
publican leader in Illinois. Charges of drunken-
ness and corruption leveled at him thereafter ap-
parently had much reason. He served in the Illi-
nois General Assembly of 1867 and was elector
at large in 1868. He was the first commander-
in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic,
1866-68. Appointed minister to Colombia in
1869, he served until 1872, apparently with little
activity not of the routine order. He was an un-
successful candidate for Congress in 1870, but
in 1872 tried again with success. He was re-
elected for the next Congress over J, F. Farns-
worth, but in 1876 was defeated for the regu-
lar renomination by William Lathrop, and, run-
ning as an independent Republican, was defeat-
ed in the election. Beyond some interest in inter-
state commerce regulation his congressional
service was not remarkable. Appointed minis-
ter to Peru in 1881, at the time of the War of
the Pacific, he showed himself an ardent partisan
of Peru, making mistakes which seriously em-
barrassed Trescot in his special mission to
the belligerent nations. After Hurlbut's death,
which occurred at Lima, a House committee ex-
onerated him of the charge of using his official
position to aid the Credit Industriel, claimant of
guano and nitrate rights in Peru, against rival
interests.

IH. H. Hurttmt, The Hurlbut Geneal (1888) ; C. A.
Church, Hist, of Rockford (1900); A. C. Cole, The
Constitutional Debates of 1847 (1919) ; War of the Re-
beltion: Official Records (Army) ; Battles end Leaders
of the Civil War (4 vols., 1887-88) ; Papers Relating
to the Foreign Relations of the U. £., 1882 (1883);
House Report No. 1790, 47 Cong., i Sess.; Chicago
Tribune and New York World, Apr. 3, 1882.]

T. C. P.

HURST, JOHN FLETCHER (Aug. 17,1834-
May 4, 1903), bishop of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, was born near Salem, Dorchester
County, Md., the son of Elijah and Ann Cath-
erine (Colston) Hurst His grandfather, Sam-
uel, born in Surrey, England, settled in Mary-
land about 1780, and in 1781 enlisted in the Con-
tinental Army. John attended the district school
and in his eleventh year entered the academy at
Cambridge, the county seat In 1850 he enrolled
as a student in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.,
from which he was graduated on July 13, 1854.
He taught for a few months in the Greensboro
Academy, Maryland, and was then appointed
professor of belles-lettres in the Hedding Liter-
ary Institute, Ashland, Greene County, N. Y.

Hurst

After teaching here for two years, he went to
Germany, where he studied theology at the uni-
versities of Halle and Heidelberg. In October
1857, after a tour of the Continent, he returned
to the United States. The following year he was
admitted to the Newark Conference of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church on trial, was ordained
deacon, Apr. 10, 1860, and elder, in 1862. His
first pastorate was at Irvington, N. J. On Apr.
28,1859, he was married to Catherine Elizabeth,
daughter of Dr. William and Anna (Vroman)
La Monte of Charlotteville, N. Y. After serving
at Passaic, at Elizabeth, and at Factoryville,
Staten Island, in 1866 he accepted the appoint-
ment as theological tutor in the Methodist Mis-
sion Institute, at Bremen, Germany. In 1867 it
was decided to move the Institute to Frankfort-
on-the-Main, where, in October 1868, it was
reopened as the Martin Mission Institute. Hurst
taught in the Institute until the spring of 1871,
when he returned to the United States to accept
the chair of historical theology in Drew Theo-
logical Seminary, at Madison, N. J. Bishop
Randolph S. Foster [#.z>.] resigned as president
in November 1872, and on May 14, 1873, the
trustees elected Hurst as his successor. Since
the opening of the Seminary in November 1867,
the salaries and other current expenses had been
provided for by the annual interest payments
accruing on Daniel Drew's personal bond for
$250,000. In 1876, Drew suffered severe busi-
ness reverses, and the seminary had to look else-
where for necessary funds. Largely through the
indefatigable efforts of President Hurst it was
able to continue its work, and an ample endow-
ment was secured.

On May 12, 1880, at the General Conference
held in Cincinnati, Hurst was elected bishop,
and in the autumn of that year he resigned as
president of Drew. For the next twenty-one
years his duties as bishop required his presence
in almost every part of the United States. Dur-
ing this period he presided at 170 Conferences
and Missions, 157 of these having been held in
forty-five different states of the Union, and thir-
teen in nine foreign countries. As a leading
Methodist educator it seemed to Hurst that there
was a distinct need for a post-graduate univer-
sity to be located in Washington, D. C, under
the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1890 he purchased a site for such an institu-
tion, of which, on May 28, 1891, he was elected
chancellor. It was chartered in 1893 as the
American University, but was not opened until
1917. During Hurst's tenure of a little more
than a decade as chancellor he secured a large
endowment. On Mar. 14, 1890, his wife died,

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