Jimmy Hurley was an American farmer who lived in Munsons Corners, Cortland County, New York. The son of Irish immigrant Timothy Joseph Hurley, he and his father lived with Abner Beech and his family of dairy farmers and shared their Copperhead views during the American Civil War. After Abner's son Thomas Jefferson Beech joined the Union Army in 1862 and estranged himself from his family, Abner came to look upon Jimmy as a surrogate son.