Talk:Patrick J. Hurley

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Patrick Jay Hurley may not have been born in 1883 or in the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma or even the USA.

In 1969, his oldest sister, known as "Nan" in the family, wrote to his youngest surviving sister, Alice. In her letter she states that "Paddy" was 2 years old when the family came - crammed 4 to a room - on a ship from Waterford, Ireland to Galveston, TX. The year was 1883. If Pat's birth day was in January, it must have been January 1881. (The original of Nan's letter went from Alice Hurley Mackey to her daughter Mary Sainsbury to Mary's daughter Mary Mahala Sainsbury who planned to pass it on the the University of Oklahoma historical collection for its Hurley papers archive.)

An 1881 baptismal record exists in County Waterford, Ireland for Patrick born to Pierce and Mary Hurley. There are also records in the same church for Pat Hurley's older siblings born to the same couple, though the spelling of Pierce's name varies. Pat had a younger brother born in 1884 in Luling, TX, with other, even younger, siblings born in the Choctaw Nation. This conforms to an 1883 arrival and the family's migration across Texas via Luling to the Choctaw Nation.

If 1881 is, in fact, correct, how an 1883 birthdate and Choctaw birthplace came to pass is pure speculation. But, in a fine American tradition, Patrick Jay Hurley may have created his own Log Cabin myth and at the same time opened the possibility of growing up to be President.

Don Lohbeck's biography, from which the 1883 birth data originates, was (1) quite openly sycophantic and (2) written without benefit of any written records of Hurley's early life. It's a fine book, but mainly reliable for Hurley's later public life.

Regardless of all this trivia, Pat Hurley and the extended Hurley family with all their descendants owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Choctaw Nation and its people, and to the people of Oklahoma.

MacSpider 06:57, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I was aware of the nature of the Lohbeck book, but left it alone when it was cited for lack of a better alternative. The question then what does the Russel Buhite biography say about the circumstances of his birth?  I was at OU last year going through some of the Hurley Papers there, and it was fun to see evidence of Buhite's research among the documents. ~ (The Rebel At) ~  15:18, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Different Take on Hurley? I am in the midst of reading Michael Burleigh's book, "Small Wars, Faraway Places", (Viking, New York, 2013), p 103, wherein he writes "US policy was not well served by its Ambassador to China from late 1944 onwards, a former Republican secretary of war called Patrick Hurley, a drunken idiot given to Choctaw war cries. Oblivious of China's delicate protocols, he referred to Chiang as 'Mr. Shek' and Mao Zedong as 'Moose Dung' in the course of shuttle trips designed to bring the two together to convert China into a springboard for the final showdown with the Japanese.  Mao's cronies called Hurley 'the Clown'; his US diplomatic colleagues dubbed him 'the Albatross.'"  Does this square with your researches? Burleigh apparently referenced Jonathan Fenby's book, "Generalissimo. Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost" (London 2005) p. 438. submitted 05 February 2014 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Selmaw53 (talk • contribs) 05:03, 6 February 2014 (UTC)