Woman of the Century/Harriette Persis Hurlbut

HURLBUT, Miss Harriette Persia, artist, born in Racine, Wis., 26th February, 1862. She is a daughter of the late Henry H. Hurlbut, the author of several works, among them "Chicago Antiquities" and "Hurlbut Genealogy." Through her mother, Harriet E. Sykes Hurlbut, she traces her ancestry back to four of the Mayflower pilgrims, among them Priscilla Mullins and her husband, John Alden. The line of descent through their daughter, Ruth, includes the names of Deacon Samuel Bass, his daughter, Mary Bass Bowditch, Abigail Bowditch, Jeremiah Pratt and Harriette HARRIETTE PERSIA HURLBUT. Partridge Pratt, who married Dr. Royal S. Sykes, of Dorset, Vt, and was the grandmother of Miss Hurlbut. With her family Harriette moved to Chicago in the winter of 1873, and has resided in that city ever since. Miss Hurlbut possessed parents of marked superiority, whose constant companionship she enjoyed, as the youngest child and only daughter, until the death of both occurred within the past two years. Her father was a man of literary tastes and pursuits, especially devoted to the graver works of learning and research. He loved history, personal and impersonal, and cultivated it with unfailing enthusiasm. Mrs. Hurlbut possessed many graces of mind and strength of character. The daughter partakes more of the traits of her father, his fondness for matters historical and genealogical. From this tendency it comes that even her art is not to her an inspiration, and what success has been achieved has been due to hard work. She was graduated from Park Institute, Chicago, it June, 1880. An early fondness for drawing turned her attention to art, and she entered the studio of Professor P. Baumgras, with whom she pursued her studies in sketching and oil painting almost continuously for eight years. Her first venture was in connection with Mrs. Mary B. Baumgras. Together they opened a studio in Chicago. Miss Hurlbut's best known picture is the life-size portrait of Samuel Champlain, which forms part of the Chicago Historical Society's collection. Always of a serious cast of mind, Miss Hurlbut passes her life in retirement, with her brother, in the paternal home in Chicago, where she is devoting herself at present to the completion of a family record-book, which her father began long ago.