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Conger (EDWIN HURD an Amer ican)

EDWIN HURD, an Amer. ican diplomatist; born in Knox co., Ill., March 7, 1843. He was graduated at Lombard University in 1862 and immediately enlisted in the Union army, attaining the brevet rank of major. At the close of the Civil War he studied law, graduating at the Albany Law School in 1866; practiced at Galesburg, Ill., removing to Iowa in 1868. He was elected to Congress in 1884 and twice re-elected as a Republican. In 1890 he was appointed Minister to Brazil, serving four years.

In 1897 he was again appointed and in the following year was transferred to China. He was at his post throughout the Chinese crisis of 1900, in Peking, being imprisoned with his family, and the entire diplomatic corps in the British legation compound from June 20 to Aug. 15. He narrowly escaped slaughter at the hands of the Boxers. The allied forces rescued him and his colleagues on August 20. See CHINA. He died May 17, 1907.