The Hurley family came from Tennessee to Atascosa County in 1876. Their destination? An area in Texas along the Atascosa River that eventually would be called Ditto, about five miles northwest of Poteet. Felix Hurley’s son – Charles Clement Hurley – was 18 when his family moved to Texas, along with his two sisters, Betty and Molly, and their mother, Mary Ann. One sister remained in Tennessee.

Felix Hurley opened a general store in Ditto and later became the first postmaster in that area. He is also credited with naming the town.

“The town had been referred to as Agua Negra,” said Pat Hurley, recalling a story one of the local historians had shared. “When Felix Hurley received some paperwork from the postal service, instead of writing out ‘Agua Negra,” he simply put ditto marks under the name that had been typed in. The next thing he knew, he was receiving paperwork from the government, designating the town’s name as ‘Ditto’ – and that’s how people started referring to it.”

By 1884, the community of Ditto had a population of fifty, a stream gristmill and gin, a church, and a school that went by the name Agua Negra. A petition the following year to make Ditto the Atascosa county seat instead of Pleasanton would have passed except that the women signer were disqualified.

In the 1890s, the town’s population decreased to twenty, but the number of businesses increased; at least two gins and Felix Hurley’s general store served area residents. In 1896, the last year for which population of Ditto was listed at twenty. When the Poteet community began to grow, the Hurleys moved their general store from Ditto to Poteet and remained there as the Hurley Mercantile Store until 1926. The store carried everything a family needed, including caskets.

After his first wife’s death, Charles Clement Hurley married Nettie Landrum in the late 1880s and had six children: Clemmie, Bebie, Rosalie, Will, Millard and Alma. In addition to his children by his first wife – Myrtle and Felix (named for grandfather) – there were eight children in all.

C.C. Hurley and his sons, Will, Millard and Felix, operated the general store until it fell victim to the economic ravages of the Great Depression. During those hard times, C.C. Hurley was forced to sell more than 6,000 acres of land near Poteet.

Will took over the auto parts portion of the business, which became Hurley Auto Parts in Pleasanton. Millard kept the Magnolia Oil Agency and served Atascosa County for 47 years. He also sold caskets through the store. An astute businessman, Millard saw a need for a funeral home in this growing rural area and decided to enter the funeral profession, opening the Hurley Funeral Home in 1919.

After attending mortuary school in Dallas in 1925, Millard became the first licensed funeral director in Atascosa County. In addition to directing services, he dug the graves and then returned to the funeral home, changing into his suit to officiate over the service. Caskets were transported to the cemetery on a flatbed pickup. After the family had returned from the cemetery, Millard would change back into his work clothes and go back, fill in the grave and arrange the flowers. The family funeral home also offered burial garments, with his wife, Thelma, sewing suits and dresses for the deceased. She also baked a chocolate cake and presented it after the funeral to every family the firm served.

During the 1930s, the Hurley Funeral Home flourished through hard work and sacrifice. They acquired a vehicle that served as an ambulance and funeral car, and a small funeral establishment was eventually completed in Poteet. Millard’s cousin R.C. joined Hurley Funeral Home. He worked there 13 years until he started his own business.

The Hurley’s business dreams were beginning to take shape, despite the Great Depression. Envisioning opening a funeral home for the area, Millard went to borrow money. The banker refused the loan, telling him that people would always go to the church for funerals and that funeral home would never work.

The Hurleys continued, undaunted, and in September 1937 purchased the G.A. Schroeder Funeral Home in Jourdanton. After several years of hard work and saving, they were also able to build their own establishment in 1938 and operated funeral homes in both Poteet and Jourdanton until Millard moved these establishments to the funeral home’s current location in Pleasanton.

In 1940, Rudy Moseley joined the staff and made his home at the Hurley Funeral Home, giving his undivided attention to the business for the next 41 years. He, R.C. Hurley and Mr. And Mrs. Millard Hurley carried a heavy load during the years leading up to World War II, with few physicians and no hospital in the county. The staff often worked around the clock, carrying the sick and injured to and from San Antonio hospitals. The wartime tire and gasoline shortages made these trips doubly difficult.

Charles Hurley, Millard’s only son, left his studies at Baylor University to enlist in the Merchant Marines when war broke out. When he returned to Pleasanton after World War II, he attended mortuary school in Dallas, graduating in 1947. Charles became a partner in the business, and his wife, Joyce Lorraine Hearn, became an organist, adding immeasurably to the Hurley funeral services.

“My grandfather paid keen attention to detail,” Patrick Jr., said, “and one day, when he found employees standing around doing nothing, my grandfather put them to work, polishing the lawnmowers – and when it came time to get the hearses ready for services, my grandfather, himself, would get a toothbrush to go over the rims, making sure everything was spotless.”

Aside from his passion for perfection, Charles Hurley was instrumental in the desegregation of the schools in Atascosa County during the civil rights movement. “My father believed it was a silly idea for the kids to go to school separately,” recalled Pat Hurley. “Life Magazine had sent a photographer to record the desegregation but when they saw things were going smoothly, the photographer was overheard to say, “Well, there’s no story here.’ My father turned and, using fairly colorful language, echoed, ‘You’re right. There’s no story.”

According to his grandson, Charles Hurley was also a man who was true to his word. “My grandfather stood for what he believed and never backed down,” said Patrick. “He had a very strong idea of what the business should be and was extremely focused in making it live up to all of these ideas.” He told his newly-licensed son that he was “making arrangements with a family, not for a family.”

When Pat Hurley got out of the service, he and his father had registered cattle and his mother’s side of the family was in ranching. He remains involved in agriculture today and has a company that transports cattle all over the United States.

“I could see the cattle business was a lot of fun, but I might not be able to make a living at it,” Pat admitted, “so I came back to the funeral profession.”

He got out of the Air Force between semesters and went to the American Breeder Service and learned how to artificially inseminate cattle. “At one time we had about 200 head of cattle and in 1978 owned half-interest in the National Grand Champion Simmental cow,” he said, adding he was doing this in addition to digging all the graves.

As the funeral business expanded, Hurley Burial Insurance Association was funded to become an integral part of the Hurley services.

In late 1953, the Hurleys purchased the R.R. Redus Funeral Home in Devine and began providing funeral services for the people of Medina County. Another funeral home was added in Pearsall in 1982 to serve Frio County, and in 2004, a new funeral home was opened in Lytle.

Charles and Joyce Hurley’s son, Patrick Charles Hurley, Sr., attended college and mortuary school at San Antonio College, becoming a licensed funeral director in 1973. He and Charles Hurley ran the ambulance service in the county until 1980, when they donated their ambulance equipment to the county to start the first EMS services in that area of Texas.

In addition to running ambulance services until 1980, Patrick Sr. also dug the graves for all three of their funeral homes in Pleasanton, Devine and Pearsall. “It was a tough schedule,” his son, Patrick, recalled. “He was always busy.”

Charles and Joyce Hurley had three children, Carole, Pat and Ross. Pat and Ross have continued the tradition of working in the family business. Ross earned his license at San Antonio College in 1983 and Patrick, Jr. attended mortuary school, graduating in 2001. Evan, Ross’s only son, earned his license last yeas, becoming the sixth generation to work and serve the communities of Atascosa and the fourth generation of licensed directors in the Hurley family. Throughout the years, the family home was adjacent to the funeral home. Patrick Jr. continues to live, with his family, in this same house.

When Charles Hurley died in 1993, every one of his employees asked to be his pallbearers. “He always carried us,” they said. “Now it’s our turn.”

Charles’ wife Joyce worked at the funeral home until her death in 2004. Patrick said, “Until she went in the hospital the week she died,” said Patrick, “she stayed active in the office, paying bills and keeping us in line.”

In February 2007, Rachel Ann McAllister Hurley, the wife of Ross Hurley, received her funeral director’s license and became the first licensed female funeral director to work at Hurley Funeral Home in Pleasanton.

The Hurley family is proud of its long record of community service. “Somebody in this family has been on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year since 1919,” said Pat. “We love this community and so many of the people we serve are our friends and neighbors. When you know how important it is for these people to know you’re there when they come, you always do a little extra.”