Aaron Gurney. The task of the biographical writer becomes a pleasant one when to the ordinary events of human life he can add a record of extensive work in a high field of labor. In tracing the chief incidents in the career of the gentleman above named, one can but feel a thrill of admiration for the mental ability, steadfast will, and whole-heartedness that have characterized him in every position. Especially in the ministry, to which he gave himself with an earnest desire to spread the "glad tidings of salvation" and win souls to Christ, were these traits manifest. The value of his example and the worth of his teachings can only be estimated when time shall be no more.

Mr. Gurney is now President of the Gurney Printing Company, publishing the Daily and Weekly News, of Springfield. The company consists of himself and his sons, F. A. and C. W., under whose management the paper has a large following in the city and the adjacent districts. It is the only evening paper in the city having a daily edition and as its editor possesses wide information, the pen of a ready writer and clear judgment, it necessarily exerts much influence over its readers. The paper had been published but one month when Mr. Gurney purchased the plant, having been obliged to abandon the ministry on account of ill health.

The natal day of our subject was March 21, 1832, and his birthplace Plattsburg, N. Y. His parents were Charles W. and Matilda Gurney, the former a Presbyterian minister. Our subject had but six months schooling, acquiring the most of his book knowledge in the home prior to entering teens. When he was six years old his father removed to Oberlin, Ohio, where he remained a short time, thence going to Coldwater, Mich. There he died after a residence of two years, leaving Aaron an orphan at the age of fourteen years. The widowed mother went to Brooklyn, Mich., with her family and took possession of a small farm which her husband had purchased in that neighborhood, and upon which she hoped to keep her four children together.

Necessity soon compelled our subject to take up his abode for a winter with an uncle in Sturgis, Mich., and there he remained until spring. He then joined a surveying party which was laying out a line of railroad from Michigan City, Ind., to LaFayette, being a part of what is now the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Road. A few months after young Gurney joined the party the engineer in charge went away and Mr. Gurney took up the work, carrying it on until the chief engineer arrived. That gentleman gave Mr. Gurney a week's instruction and then placed him in charge of the work, which he completed satisfactorily from Michigan City to Lafayette, Ind. Few young men would have improved every opportunity as he did and without previous preparation become so well acquainted with the work of a civil engineer.

Mr. Gurney had determined to enter the ministry at as early an age as the church would receive him, which was upon attaining to his majority, and two years afterward he was ordained. He was known as the "boy preacher' in the days of Peter Cartwright , James B. Finley and such pioneers of the church. He continued his labors in the ministry until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he accompanied the Ninth Indiana infantry to the front as Chaplain. He remained with the regiment during their ninety days' enlistment, and then under the direction of Gov. O. P. Morton, was engaged in enlisting men for the army for two years. After returning to the North he located at Valparaiso, Ind., and established the Porter County Vidette. While carrying on its publication he read law and was admitted to the bar within six months, and such was his standing in the community that he soon had a good practice.

During the continuation of the Civil War Mr. Gurney became recognized as one of the leading men of the northern part of the State in connection with work in behalf of the Union. He aided Morton and Colfax and the other officials who stood by the Nation, in keeping the State in line, and took the stump for his principles, winning the admiration of the loyal people and the hatred of those who sympathized with the South. His name will go down to posterity as one of the brave band who did as noble a work in the State as the boys in blue were doing on Southern battle fields, and whose life was oftimes as much endangered.

At the close of the war Mr. Gurney continued his work as a newspaper man and attorney at Valparaiso until 1874. During this time the degrees of Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Laws were conferred upon him by the College of Northern Indiana. Previous to this he received the degree of A. M. from Asbury. Upon leaving Valparaiso Mr. Gurney removed to Englewood, Cook County, Ill., where he organized a church, which at the end of its second year was taken into the Rock River Conference as a regular station. He not only organized the society, but succeeded in building the church structure, now known as the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Englewood. The congregation was financially weak, but the feeling that a house of worship was needed, and that the Master's work must be done gained ground, until the undertaking was begun which resulted in the substantial and commodious building in which a large congregation now meets. Mr. Gurney remained with the congregation during the Conference limit of three years, after which he was sent to various other charges. He was pastor of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church of Chicago, on leaving there went to Batavia, and returned to Chicago to assume the pastorate of the Ada Street Church. He then went to Elgin and from that city to Ottawa, whence on the failure of his health, he came to Springfield. His removal hither took place in June, 1885, and not wishing to be idle, he returned to his former business, that of a journalist, with the results before noted.

At the bride's home in Adrian, Mich., May 18, 1853, Mr. Gurney was married to Janet Bailey. This lady has proved herself worthy as wife and mother and in the society of the various places in which she lived has been influential and useful. The union has been blest by the birth of five children, of whom two, Charles William and George L., are deceased. The survivors are Frank A., Minnie R. and Charles Wilber. Frank married Caroline I. Bishop, a daughter of the Rev. J. Bishop, the ceremony being performed April 19, 1877. To them have come three children, Claude A., Maude I. and Benjamin F. Charles married Miss Serepta M. Bishop, also a daughter of the Rev. J. Bishop, and has one child, Leila May. Our subject is still a member of the Rock River Conference and his family are numbered among the members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Springfield.