586 East Main St., Jackson, TN
Circa 1857. 2-story Greek Revival
The home was constructed in what is now the East Main Street Historic District where in the mid-nineteenth century many prominent Jackson citizens lived. The Hurt House is considered the oldest house on Main St. being built in 1857.
Maj. Robert Bailey Hurt (1821-1881) and Susan A. Deberry Hurt (1825-1910) built the Greek Revival home. They married in 1843. Her parents were Mathias and Elizabeth Deberry of the Deberry House. He was an important state legislator who helped bring the railroad system to Jackson. Jackson became the junction of the Mississippi Central Railroad and the Mobile & Ohio Railroad just prior to the Civil War. In 1873, he was chair of a convention held in Jackson to advocate a new state created from West Tennessee, Western Kentucky and Northern Mississippi. Hurt was also the Commissioner of the Agricultural Bureau for West Tennessee, Jackson. The family amassed great wealth.
His son Milton Brown Hurt (1846-1914) and Anne Meriwether Hurt (1854-1911) also lived at the home. They married in 1872. He was a circuit court clerk for years. Her sister Lucy Katherine “Kate” Meriwether Wisdom married John Lee Wisdom and lived down the street in the Wisdom House.
From 1932-1945, Dr. John Jeter Hurt (1873-1961) and Ethelyn Lovell Hurt (1885-1958) owned the home. He was president of Union University during that time as well. The Union Board of Trustees was about to declare bankruptcy, and Pastor Hurt left his thriving church, First Baptist church in Jackson, to serve at Union. He also led the institution through the trials of America during World War II. During his tenure, Hurt nurtured productive relationships with important persons: Benjamin Duke, co-founder of Duke University, Charles M. Kittle, president of Sear, Roebuck & Co., and Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a judge and the first commissioner of baseball. After his time at Union, Dr. Hurt and Ethelyn move to the Atlanta area.
By 1956, Dr. Thomas Kelly Ballard, Jr. (1919-1996) and Mary Frances Bond Ballard (1919-2014) purchased the home. They wed in 1942. He and relatives have been physicians in the Jackson area for years. See Deberry House, Wisdom House
Sources:
Jackson: A Pictorial History, p. 70
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