Hon. Edwin Hurlbut (October 10, 1817 – November 28, 1905) was an American lawyer, editor, politician and humanitarian. Early years Born in 1817 in Newtown, Connecticut, one of ten children of Philander and Julia Alma (Thomas) Hurlbut. The family moved to Bradford County, Pennsylvania when Edwin was seven years old. They made the trip in a covered wagon, which they lived in until they cleared the land and built a log house on their one thousand acre homestead. During the three months of winter Edwin walked four miles a day through the forests to the nearest school, which was held in a log house. The remainder of the year he aided his father in cutting timber, digging up stumps and transforming the wilderness into meadow and grain field. Edwin credits these years of hard labor to his later in life gnarled and stiff fingers and joints, which he would state were not the fingers of either a lawyer nor editor. He also attributed these early life experiences to his determination to never shrink from a task. Eight years later fifteen-year-old Edwin walked to New Jersey. He states that "...when quite a chunk of a boy, with light heart and elastic step I left home and walked over the mountains and through the woods to Newark, New Jersey, 100 miles distant, to visit Grandma Thomas." He lived there a year and then walked back to Pennsylvania to resume an occupation as a woodchopper. Early career Hurlbut left the Pennsylvania homestead and went West to spend a short time in Eaton County, Michigan, but soon returned East to study law at Lodi, in Seneca County, New York, where he opened a law office and married Catherine Chandler in 1840. In 1842 he began studying law with David Wilmot in Towanda, Pennsylvania., and was admitted to the bar in 1847. He lost his home to foreclosure, so in 1848 he moved his family to Mason, Ingham County, Michigan. There he practiced law, was Postmaster, District Attorney, and judge advocate for the Michigan Militia. In April, 1850 he began an immigration to California, stopping in Milwaukee and then in Waukesha where his brother James and family were living. While visiting his brother he visited Oconomowoc and said, "That settled me. I thought it the most enchanting spot I had ever seen. If anyone could make a living there I could, I thought, and there