My Genealogy Hound

ORCENUS HULBURD, Jr., was born in Colchester, Chittenden County, Vt., on the 23d of July, 1821, and died at his home in Benton Harbor November 19, 1883, at the age of three-score and two years. The record of his honorable life is one which his friends may review with pride, and as an early settler and influential citizen of Berrien County his name should be perpetuated through the generations yet to come. Through his entire life he maintained the high principles of honor, energy and industry to which he was reared, and which secured for him the large measure of success that crowned his exertions.

Our subject was the son of Orcenus and Larecey (Allen) Hulburd, the latter having been the first female child born in the town of Colchester, Vt. In the Green Mountain State he passed his childhood years and gained a fair education in the district schools. Upon completing his studies, he served an apprenticeship at the trade of a carpenter and followed that occupation in Vermont for a number of years. During the great gold excitement, he was one of the number who made the journey to the far West, seeking fortune in the mines of the Golden State. After remaining in California for three years, he returned to the East, in 1855, and made settlement in Leonidas, St. Joseph County, Mich., where he embarked in the milling business, continuing in that occupation for five years.

Coming to Benton Harbor in 1860, Mr. Hulburd was identified with the early history of this village and was one of its influential men. Many of the first buildings erected here were his workmanship and some of them are still standing. In addition to carpenter work, he also took contracts for buildings, and became one of the most popular and successful contractors in southwestern Michigan. He continued actively engaged in business until his demise. In 1862 he engaged in building docks for the Government in the vicinity of Little Rock, Ark. In politics a Democrat, he was always interested in public matters and was well informed upon all subjects of general interest. He was a member of the first School Board of Benton Harbor, and through his energy much was accomplished to promote the standard of education in the village.

On the 26th of December, 1850, Mr. Hulburd married Miss Nancy A. Kidd. She was born in Highgate, Vt., November 3, 1823, and is the daughter of David and Margaret (Hand) Kidd, natives of England. Mr. Kidd emigrated to the United States and settled first in Vermont and then in Rochester, N. Y., where he carried on milling fourteen years. From Rochester he went back to Colchester, Vt., lived there ten years, then came West to Leonidas, St. Joseph County, Mich., in June, 1852. He owned a flouring and saw mill, there and considerable landed estate. He finally moved to White Pigeon and there died. His father, Joseph Kidd, was a Baptist minister in Vermont and the western part of New York State. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Hulburd, Samuel Hand by name, was a native of England. Accompanying her parents to Rochester, N. Y., when a child, Mrs. Hulburd was reared and educated in that city. She was the only daughter among eleven children, and by her marriage became the mother of two children, David K., a resident of Water Valley, Miss.; and Margaret L., wife of Joseph Wright, of Milwaukee. In her home in the Hulburd Block Mrs. Hulburd is surrounded by every comfort which can contribute to the happiness of life, and she is highly regarded by the people of the city.