This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: McCurdy, Updegraff, Poe, Stewart, Cassidy Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Vm.2ADE/1067 Message Board Post: Hutchinson, Reno County, Kansas “Hutchinson News” issue of Thursday, 17 November 1904, p. 4, col. 3 OLD SETTLER PASSES AWAY John P. McCurdy Died at a Little After Midnight. Death Comes After Several Years Suffering With Ailment Which Proved Fatal. LIVED HERE MANY YEARS Identified With the Building Up of Hutchinson. Was an Old Soldier and a Mason--Funeral to Be on Friday Afternoon. John P. McCurdy, one of the oldest residents of Hutchinson, died a little after midnight last night, of anaemia, from which ailment he has suffered for the past two or three years. He was unconscious at the time of his death and had been in this condition practically all of the time, since Monday. He has been very ill for many months and his sickness has dated for two or three years back. Mr. McCurdy has been in an anaemic condition for a long time and medical science has yet found no way to combat this ailment, which is a gradual weakening of the whole system and especially the blood-forming functions. Physicians who have attended him say that his death was surely coming months ago and nothing could be done to change the ultimate result, checking on the disease being the best that could be done. The fact that he has lived a temperate life has had much to do with prolonging life as long as it was, but the result was bound to come, sooner or later. He has suffered very little, if any, no pain at any time making its presence felt. He has had little appetite for a long time and this has helped to bring death sooner. John P. McCurdy was born on February 24, 1837, in Center county, Pennsylvania. He was married to Miss Margaret Updegraff, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, on December 13, 1865, and his wife still survives him. Eight children were born to them, five of whom are still living. Four of the children were present at the time of his death, being U.B. McCurdy, of Kansas City, Mrs. R.A. Stewart, Mrs. S.A. Poe and Dr. H.U. McCurdy, of Hutchinson. Another daughter, Mrs. Galen E. Casity, of Kansas City, will arrive this evening and attend the funeral, which will be held from the home in North Main street at 3 o’clock Friday afternoon, November 18. Rev. D.M. Yetter, of the First Methodist church, will have charge of the services, Mr. McCurdy being a member of that church. The interment will be in Eastside cemetery. Mr. McCurdy came to Reno county in the spring of 1874 and has lived here and been identified with the growth and building up of the city and county, always making this county and city his home. He has been a member of the city council at different times and has always worked for the interests of the city. He was a life member of the Greensburg, Pa., Masonic lodge and had never changed his membership to the local lodge here. He was known to all of the oldest settlers here, and the new comers have also known him. He has been a factor in the life of the city almost from the beginning and his influence has been felt in many things. Mr. McCurdy served through the war as a member of Company K, Eleventh Pennsylvania volunteers, and has been a member of Joe Hooker Post, G.A.R., for many years.