Chester Hurdle holds a photo of his father Andrew Jackson Hurdle in his 80’s. This photo was taken in 2002 as part of an article in SFGate online news.
Someone reminded me recently that I wrote an article about a gentleman whose initials were A. J. back in the summer. I said then I knew of two other men with the initials A. J., but not all of them were named for Andrew Jackson. The first man was and today’s subject was also a namesake of our seventh president. Later I will tell the story of the A. J. who wasn’t named for the seventh president.
Today’s Andrew Jackson was born a slave on Christmas Day 1845 even though President Andrew Jackson was a known slave owner. Why name your child after a notorious slaveholder? Quite simply, the boy’s parents did not give him his name, the owner did. Not only that, the boy’s birth was recorded in the deed records in the North Carolina County in which he was born. The owner and the laws of North Carolina considered him as a piece of property.
However, this was a fairly lucky family. Both parents and all eight of their children were able to live together for a considerable length of time. That is until the owner over-extended himself financially and had to sell all of this family on the auction block about 1853. The parents and seven of the children were bought by nearby buyers. Andrew Jackson was the exception. A man who was moving to Daingerfield in what is now Morris County, Texas bought him. Sadly, our Andrew Jackson Hurdle left his family behind to travel to Texas.
His new masters wanted an intelligent, alert, male child who could be a companion to their son of the same age. Their son had an extreme speech defect. The mother homeschooled the boy with Andrew Jackson sitting by his side. When the family went to church at the Disciples of Christ Church in Daingerfield, Andrew Jackson went also. Andrew Jackson’s only task was to be a companion to the young boy, and hopefully help him with his speech.
When Andrew Jackson Hurdle and his companion were about sixteen years old, the Civil War broke out. The plantation owner immediately left for war, leaving his plantation, slaves, and crops in the hands of an overseer who whipped Andrew Jackson. At that point, the young slave fled to Louisiana where he came in contact with a Union Cavalry company. They gave Andrew Jackson a job caring for horses and a blue Union tunic that he treasured for the rest of his life.
When the war was over, Andrew Jackson returned to Daingerfield, and in 1868 married Vine Jane “Viney” Sanders in Titus County. Conditions there were some of the worst and most deadly of Reconstruction violence in all of the former Confederate states.
Hurdle was ordained a Deacon in the Disciples of Christ Church in 1874 and an ordained preacher by 1880. Late in 1874 the couple and their children moved to what is known today as Center Point in Hunt County. Hurdle organized a school for former slaves and ministered to five churches. In his long life, Andrew Jackson Hurdle ministered his congregations and encouraged young people to continue their educations. He passed away in 1935 at the age of ninety, a well-respected African American minister and educator in Hunt County.