Isaac Hurst, Sr.
Born around 1860 -  Died 6/3/1930 at age 70

Isaac Hurst Sr born around 1860 in Georgia  -  Died 6/3/1930 in Linden, TX at age 70…Both of his parents were born into slavery in Kentucky 

Married: Mariah Sheppard on 2/5/1880...Born 11/1861 in Georgia - died 5/30/1912 in Linden, TX at around age 52...Note: Her parents were Nancy [born 1830] and Martin [born 1828] Sheppard, who were both born into slavery in Georgia.  Also, note that the Cass County cemetery book lists Mariah as a Thomas.  Her Death Certificate states that her parents are Mariah Thomson (aka Thompson/Thomas). 

Isaac Sr. and Mariah Hurst are the parents of the following 10 children:

1.  Della Hurst [born 6/22/1880 - died 12/9/1916 at age 36]…never married...no children 

2.  Zuma Annie Lee Hurst Flournoy [born 6/27/1882 – died 1/16/1964 at age 81]…married John H. Flournoy [born 5/1/1872 - died 6/3/1950 at age 78]...Note that his parents were Mr. Mahaliah and Mrs. Bonnie Flournoy of Marshall, TX…no biological children...
  • adopted Lena Belle Epps Adams 

3.  Manoah "Bubba" Hurst [born 1885] …married Ft Worth woman…no children

4.  Arena “Rena” Hurst Greene [born 12/1/1896 - died 10/3/1959 at age 62] …married Aaron Greene Sr…Aaron born 12/11/1885 - died 10/4/1954 at age 68]...Five Children:  
  • Viola Lunetta "Dear" Greene Allen [born 8/15/1916 - died 9/1/1989 at age 73]...married Welton Allen...Children:  Werllean Jones, Jewerllean Anderson, Jeanette [died] 
  • Elon Greene...no children
  • Aaron Greene Jr [born 4/30/1920 - died 6/26/1960 at age 40]...married Elizabeth from New Mexico...no biological children
  • Minnie Mariah Greene Brooks...married Henry Brooks [born 4/5/1929 - died 3/25/2001 at age 72] in 1954...Children:  Henry Jr, Patricia, Henrietta, Brenda
  • David Emerson Greene Sr [born 8/28/1929  -  died 3/16/1978 at age 49]...married Agnes Davis in 1956...Children: David Emerson Green Jr,; Casita Ruez Greene    

5.  Simmon Byrd Hurst Mack [born 1/1888 in Linden, TX]…married Burt/Burks/Berks Mack on 12/16/1917 in Linden, TX...Burt/Burks/Berks was born 2/28/1887 in Linden, TX -  died 8/26/1925 in Linden, TX at age 38…Simmon Byrd later married Robert Love...Children by Burt Mack:  
  • Kaiser Mack [born 9/13/1920 - died 9/24/1988 at age 68]…married Maggie Epps Mack...Children: Milborn Mack [died], Claude Mack [died], Burks Mack, Semmon Lois Mack Franklin Stubblefield [born 8/29/1941 - died 12/6/2007 at age 66], Vada Mack Gardner, Alma Mack Castleberry 

6.  Hezekiah "Hez" Hurst [born 1/31/1891 - died 10/10/1973 at age 82]…married Leona Davis "Aunt Feet" Hurst on 12/23/1923…Leona born 4/30/1889 - died 11/23/1971...Hez had no biological children...stepdaughter Frankie Harrison 


7.  Lena E Hurst Epps...born 6/27 or 6/28/1893  -  Died 5/8/1942 at age 48…married Silas Epps Sr...Three Children:  
  • Lena Epps Adams:  Born 10/22/1926  -  Died 4/16/2010 at age 83...married George Adams [Born 7/13/1926  -  Died 5/28/1997 at age 70]...Children:  Gregory Clinton Adams born 7/18/1951; Kaye Adams: born 9/29/1954
  • Luevenia "Bench" Epps Benton:  Born 7/6/1928...married Horace Benton [Born 7/29/1927  -  Died 1/27/2000 at age 72]...Children: Debra Lynn Benton Edwards Woolridge [Born 10/29/1953  -  Died 9/30/1991 at age 37], June Theresa Benton Davis [Born 7/12/1955]
  • Silas Epps, Jr.  "SE":  Born 3/17/1930  -  Died 2/14/1970 at age 39...married Barbara [Born 10/8/1933]...Children: Edward "Ed" Lewis Epps [Born 10/22/1954], Loretta Jean Epps [Born 5/9/1956], Clevester "Cle" Epps [Born 4/29/1959]

8.  Essie D Hurst Smith [born 12/25/1895 - died 10/27/1972 at age 76].…married Sam Smith [born 6/1/1872 - died 12/20/1953]…Six Children:  
  • Lee Archie Smith [born 2/26/1919 - died 12/11/2003 at age 84]...married Mildred Louise Bonner...Children:  Carolyn A. Smith Cannon, Scharlotte A. Smith McAfee
  • Warren G "Brother" Smith...Children:  Warren G "Baby Brother" Smith
  • Flournoy Smith...no children
  • Dollie J. Smith...5 children
  • Olean Smith [born 1930]...Children:  Charlene [died around 1991] and Gilbert [died around 2008]
  • Earnestine Smith Rounds [born 1933]...married Ramon Rounds...Children:  Reggie and Andre

9.  Isaac "Ike Jr" Hurst [born 1/31/1900 - died 5/16/1955 at age 55] …never married...no children

10.  Bertha Leona Hurst Mack [born 5/16/1903 in Linden, TX  -  died 12/14/1992 in Cass County, TX at age 89]...married Vollie "Ted" Mack Jr. on 4/6/1924, Linden, TX…Volley Mack Sr born 5/16/1903 in Linden, TX  -  died 12/4/1983 in Cass Co, TX at age 80...Ten Children:  
  • Volena Mack Allen [born 1/5/1925]…married Adrian Quainton Allen, Sr [born 5/15/1923 – died 7/11/2004 at age 81]...Children:  Linda Allen, Adrian Allen Jr.
  • Major Mack [born 1/13/1928 - died 10/3/1999 at age 71]… married  Mable D. Coleman Mack [born 7/10/1935] on 8/24/1957...Children:  Laeshurn Mack, Deniese Mack Darden, Kevin Mack, Lawrence Coleman Jr.
  • Jessie Mack [born 11/1/1929  -  died 12/21/1981 at age 52]...
  • James Mack [born 12/ 21/1931 - died 5/13/2000]...Children:  Anita Green, Timothy "Tim" Mack
  • Nathaniel Mack [2/2/ 1934]...married Dorothy 
  • Vollie Mack III [born 12/2/1935] 
  • Shirley Jean Mack Jones [born 11/20/1936]...married Roscoe Jones...Children:  Roscoe Jones II
  • Ruthie Mae Mack [born 5/16/1940]
  • Hannah Joyce Mack Marsh [born 4/28/1942]…married James Lynn Marsh, Sr…Children:  James Marsh Jr 
  • Juanita “Newt” Mack [born 2/23/1944]
According to folklore, Isaac Hurst Sr was a pure Hottentot, a South African Tribe...
Click here  and here for more info about this tribe.

As per the online Encyclopedia Britannica 9th Edition (Ninth Edition):  We conclude this sketch with the Hottentot race, which is entirely different from all the other races of Africa. Where they originally came from, and how they happened to be hemmed in and confined entirely to this remote corner of the earth, is a problem not likely to be ever satisfactorily solved the only people to whom the Hottentot has been thought to bear a resemblance, are the Chinese or Malays, or their original stock the Mongols. Like these people they have the broad forehead, the high cheek-bones, the oblique eye, the thin beard, and the dull yellow tint of complexion, resembling the colour of a dried tobacco leaf; but there is a difference with regard to the hair, which grows in small tuffs, harsh, and rather wiry, covering the scalp somewhat like the hard pellets of a shoe-brush.

The women, too, have a peculiarity in their physical conformation, which, though occasionally to be met with in other nations, is not universal, as among the Hottentots. Their constitutional "bustles" sometimes grow to three times the size of those artificial stuffings with which our fashionable ladies have disfigured themselves. Even the females of the diminutive Bosjesmen Hottentots, who frequently perish of hunger in the barren mountains, and are reduced to skeletons, have the same protuberances as the Hottentots of the plains.

It is not known even whence the name of Hottentot proceeds, as it is none of their own. It has been conjectured that hot and tot frequently occurring in their singular language, in which the monosyllables are enunciated with a palatic clacking with the tongue, like that of a hen, may have given rise to the name, and that the early Dutch settlers named them hot-en-tot. they call themselves quiquoe, pronounced with a clack.

They are a lively, cheerful, good-humoured people, and by no means wanting in intellect; but they have met with nothing but harsh treatment since their first connection with Europeans. Neither Bartholomew Diaz, who first discovered, nor Vasco de Gama, who first doubled, the Cape of Good Hope, nor any of the subsequent Portuguese navigators, down to 1509, had much communication with the natives of this southern angle of Africa; but in the year above mentioned, Francisco d'Almeyda, viceroy of India, having landed on his return at Saldanha (now Table) Bay, was killed, with about twenty of his people, in a scuffle with the natives. To avenge his death, a Portuguese captain, about three years afterwards, is said to have landed a piece of ordnance loaded with grape shot, as a pretended present to the Hottentots. Two ropes were attached to this fatal engine; the Hottentots poured down in swarms. Men, women, and children flocked round the deadly machine, as the Trojans did round the wooden horse, "funemque manu contingere gaudent." The brutal Portuguese fired off the piece, and viewed with savage delight the mangled carcasses of the deluded people. The Dutch effected their ruin by gratifying their propensity for brandy and tobacco, at the expense of their herds of cattle on which they subsisted.

Under the British sway they have received protection, and shown themselves not unworthy of it. They now possess property, and enjoy it in security. One of the most beautiful villages, and the neatest and best-cultivated gardens, belong to a large community of Hottentots, under the instruction and guidance of a few Moravian missionaries.






As per the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia:  The Hottentot is one of three tribes of South Africa which may be divided — Bantus, Hottentots, and Bushmen. When the first Europeans (the Portuguese) came to South Africa, they found what is now Cape Colony divided between Bushmen and Hottentots. The Bantu tribes were chiefly north of the Zambesi. The Bushmen were smaller than the Hottentots physically.

The origin of the Hottentots is a question which has given rise to much discussion. Several writers have suggested a North African origin; and Dr. Bleek has detected important points of similarity between the Hottentot language and those of North Africa; but it is too soon to build on these slight indications. Dr. Theal appears to suggest that the first Hottentots were a mixed race. "The probability seems to be that a party of intruding males of some slight brown or yellow race took to themselves women of Bushman blood, and thus gave origin to the people whom Europeans term Hottentots." This suggestion merely puts this question among the insoluble problems.

For the description of the pure Hottentot we are dependent on ancient writers like Kolben; because the pure Hottentot cannot be said to exist today. Today the so-called Hottentots are of every colour, size, and character, through mixture with other races. Even the language which they principally speak is a patois of the Dutch dialect of the Cape.

The language of the Hottentots is monosyllabic; having four known dialects — the Namaqua, which is still spoken by some of the natives; the Kora and Cape Hottentot, which are practically extinct; and the Eastern Hottentot, which exists only in a few meagre vocabularies, and has been extinct for some time.

The most striking characteristic of the Hottentot language for the European lies in the "clicks". Something similar is thought to be found in the Galla language of Abyssinia, in the Circassian tongue, and in the ancient speech of Guatemala. But three-fourths of the words in the Hottentot dialects begin with a click. Clicks are of four kinds, and are difficult to describe to those who have not heard them. The drawing of a cork, and the gurgling sound of water in the narrow neck of a bottle, the sound made in urging a horse to trot or run, and other sounds have been used to illustrate their nature; but at least one of them, the palatal click, defies description.

The grammatical system of the Hottentots is built almost exclusively on sex-denoting suffixes, and it is the most complete of this small group of languages. The liquid L is entirely wanting, and it has a small variety of clear nasal consonants. The only native literature that exists in these dialects consists of folk-lore tales, such as mark the beginning of all European literature. Translations of parts of the Scriptures have been made by missionaries in Namaqualand.

The religion of the Hottentots is a congeries of superstitious observances, of which travellers and folklorists have never been able to obtain a full explanation from the natives. They appear to believe in a superior being whom they call Tsuikwap; but the antiquity and the meaning of this word are open to some doubt. The most elaborate ceremonies of the Hottentots are in honour of the moon, and they pay great reverence to cairns of stones and wood, where they believe a mythical personage named Heitsi-Eibib to reside.

The Hottentots called themselves Khoikhoin — men of men. The most curious of their customs is that on attaining manhood the Hottentot makes himself a monorchis (an individual who has only one testis or only one descended into the scrotum). Polygamy was not general, but permitted to the wealthy. They never seem to have made boats of any kind, and abhor the oil of fish, although fond of smearing their skin with oil. Witchcraft was common among them. Their government was carried on by chiefs, who administered a well-defined native law. The doctors were in high esteem, and next to them the priests, who combined the duties of masters of ceremonies and surgeons in the monorchist rites.

Hottentots are now found chiefly in German Southwest Africa and in Cape Colony. For the former territory there are no official figures as to their number; but they do not exceed thirty thousand. During the recent rebellion against the Germans, the Hottentots gave more trouble than all the other races together.

In the time of the first Dutch governor (van Riebeeck) the Hottentots at the Cape were estimated at 150,000. But the smallpox epidemic in 1713 reduced their numbers enormously. In 1904 the census put them at 85,892. Their destiny seems to be absorption into the more virile native races.

Missionary work among the Hottentots and allied tribes has been undertaken by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in Cape Colony, and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in German South-west Africa. The Orange River Vicariate is composed chiefly of a species of Hottentot called Griquas. In German territory, in the Prefecture Apostolic of Lower Cimbebasia, Catholic missionary work among the native tribes is in its infancy.


A photo of a Hottentot individual is located here