A Summary of the Abel Hunt Family History
Our first known progenitor was Ralph Hunt who arrived in Middleburg (later, Newtown), Long Island, New York in 1652. James Riker, Jr. introduces the event in his book the Annals of Newtown (1851):
“It was in the year 1652 that a goodly company of Englishmen arrived in this colony from New England, and obtained leave from Director Stuyvesant to plant a town within his jurisdiction. The fertile lands of Mespat being yet, for the most part, unoccupied, offered a bright field for their enterprise. A locality well watered by springs, and having convenient fresh meadows, was selected in the interior, about midway between the Kill of Mespat and Vlissingen, (now Flushing), the only English village for miles around, if we except the scattered tenements at Mespat Kill ; while Breukelen was the nearest Dutch village. Several of the new comers were direct from Greenwich, Stamford, Fairfield, and other villages along the Connecticut shore..”
This area was previously settled, in the location of Flushing, by Puritans led by Rev. Francis Doughty. They had fled to Rhode Island because of persecution in Massachusetts for their reformist views. The Dutch colony promised to be far less restrictive but the settlement, suffering grievous Indian attacks, illness and title disputes, struggled to establish itself.
The boundary dispute with the neighboring village of Aernhem and the failure to secure a title for their lands from the nominal owners prompted the Middelburg settlers to purchase the land from the local Indians. In 1656 they contracted with the original owners, the native Rowerowestco and Pomwaukon tribes, to purchase the land for a sum of £68 ($13,500 today). Included in a list of the 55 original purchasers of the land, who were assessed an amount commensurate with their current holdings, is Ralph Hunt at the sum of £1. In 1662 the area separated from Dutch rule and Ralph was elected a town officer. In 1665 they had formed their own militia with Ralph being commissioned as Lieutenant. By 1667 Newtown was able to secure the governor’s patent for the township for which 7 citizens, including Ralph Hunt, were named patentees representing the whole town. In 1668 as increased land grants were being issued he was appointed Surveyor.
Because of this association it is believed that Ralph was born in England about 1625 and immigrated to the Colonies during the Great Migration from 1630-40. In search of religious and political freedom twenty thousand Puritans travelled to New England during this period. In 1630 John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, organized a fleet of eleven ships led by the flagship Arbella and delivered approximately 700 passenger to the Massachusetts Colony near the area of present day Boston. The other ships in the fleet for the initial voyages were the Ambrose, Charles, Hopewell, Jewel, Mayflower, Success, Talbot, Trial, Whale and William & Francis. Indexes of ship manifests for this period are incomplete and we are yet unable to find the Hunt surname in the records of the Winthrop Society which continues to publish records as they are made available. Although Ralph would have been a minor child at this time and his parents are unknown we hope to discover the Hunt surname in order to support this possible connection.
Ralph married Ann, whose maiden name is unknown, around 1649. We know from his will, administered by his son Edward on February 25 1676, that he had six children, Anna, Edward, Mary, Ralph, John and Samuel. His children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on would first migrate to New Jersey, then North Carolina and on to Kentucky where some would split and migrate to Tennessee, Utah and Illinois.
By 1698 Ralph’s children and other citizens of Newtown had begun buying land in what would later be known as the township of Hopewell, New Jersey about 100 miles to the southwest. John, son of Ralph, purchased 500 acres there in 1714. John, Jr., son of John married Margaret Moore on February 8th of the same year. They had children Wilson, Jonathan, Johanna, Charity, John, Noah, Gershom and Daniel. The youngest son, Daniel was born in 1726. He married Susannah Green in 1751 and they raised children John, Jonathan, Abel, James, Gersham, Margaret, Charity, Hannah, Owen and Anne. This Abel, the third-born son of Daniel and Susannah, is the first Abel of our family lineage.
After having lived in the Hopewell area for a generation there was a title dispute on their land and the settlers were forced to leave their property and make the arduous 500 mile trek to what would be known as the Jersey Settlement in Rowan County, North Carolina. It was here, near the town of Linwood, that Abel was born in 1768.
The next stop in the Hunt Family journey would be the newly opened Kentucky territory. There is a Kentucky preemption warrant for Wilson Hunt, possibly the brother of Daniel, issued January 18, 1780 for 1,000 acres near “William Bryant’s Spring adjoining the Falling Timbers on the north side of Elkhorn Creek”. Elkhorn Creek is a stream that runs approximately 100 miles through Fayette, Scott, Woodford and Franklin counties meeting the Kentucky River in northern Franklin county. This area was describe by Jedidiah Morse in his book, The American Geography (London, 1794) as
“..a country fine beyond description. Indeed, the country east and south of this, including the head waters of Licking river, Hickman’s and Jessamine Creeks, and the remarkable bend in Kentucky river, may be called an extensive garden. The soil is deep and black, and the natural growth, large walnuts, honey and black locust, poplar, elm, oak, hickory, sugar tree, &c. Grape vines run to the tops of the trees; and the surface of the ground is covered with clover, blue grass, and wild rye. On this fertile track, and the Licking River, and the head waters of Salt 0052iver, are the bulk of the settlements in this country. The soil within a mile or two of Kentucky River is generally of the third and fourth rates; and as you advance towards the Ohio, the land is poor and hilly.”
It’s likely that Abel followed his uncle across the famous Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap, where other settlers from Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania also began immigrating to Kentucky at the end of the of the American Revolution. The most prominent of these early settlers and explorers was Daniel Boone, one of the founders of the state. Abel eventually settled in the area of present-day Barren County, Kentucky, then still a part of Virginia. Abel’s son, Noah, was born here in 1790. Two years later on June 1, 1792 Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state in the Union.
Noah’s son, Abel, was born in Barren County in 1812. It was this year that the U.S. again declared war with England because of continued disputes remaining from the War of Independence, some of which included trade restrictions, the impressment of U.S. citizens into the Royal Navy, the continued harassment of settlers by Indian tribes allied to the British and the Canadian border issues. The end of the war in 1815 and cessation of organized Indian aggression in outlying territories would open up further western migration.
Around 1830 Noah left Kentucky and travelled the 200 miles to settle in Raleigh Township, present-day Saline Co., Illinois. It is here we find Abel and his family in the 1840 and 1850 census. Noah may have joined other families migrating to southern Illinois at this time in search of more affordable arable land to support their agrarian skills and lifestyle. In an excerpt from the History of Illinois, Goodspeed Publishing, 1887, Saline County is described as
“.. somewhat hilly, more so than that of Gallatin County. Gold Hill Ridge extends beyond the limits of Gallatin County into Saline County, and forms a conspicuous elevation in the southeastern part of this county. In Somerset Township this ridge is known there as Prospect Hill or Eagle Mountains. As determined by the barometer the height of these mountains above low water in the Saline River is 590 feet, and after crossing the low lands in the central southern portion of the county the same elevation again appears in the southwestern corner of the county near the village of Stone Fort. The middle, northern and western portions of the county, though generally level, are broken by hills and ridges varying from ten to eighty feet above high water mark of the streams, ” Crusoe’s Island” in nearly the geographical center of the county, is about sixty feet high and is surmounted by the village of Harrisburg, the approaches to which are made of low levees. The principal water courses are the Saline, with its South and North Forks, and the Little Saline. These streams, as well as their small tributaries, have low banks and as a consequence the bottom lands are to a great extent overflowed in the rainy seasons.”
“The soils are similar to those of Gallatin County. Along the water courses is a black sandy loam and there are extensive tracts of post oak flats, the soil of which is of an ashen color, close, compact clay very tenacious and almost impervious to water, requiring proper ditching and under draining before the full benefits can be obtained from its culture. Intermediate between these two varieties is what is known as the ” gum soil,” which also needs to be thoroughly drained before it can be in the best condition. Besides these three there is a good, strong soil, which occupies the greater portion of the county, known as the “drift soil”, which on the highest points and on the low, rolling lands is from ten to twenty feet thick. This is particularly good for small grains and clover, but like some of the other varieties needs more or less draining. Tobacco is one of the staple products of this county; in 1875 5,500 acres having been devoted to this crop alone.”
Noah is named in his father’s will of 1822 (probated 1842). Noah’s son, Alexander, executed a deed from Barren County in 1846 recording his residence as Illinois.
Abel was 28 in 1840 when he is listed as head of household, but his oldest child wasn’t born until 1844. Since Noah died in 1833 it’s likely that this was his father’s household and as the eldest son he took responsibility for their welfare. Brother, James Allen was 10; Alexander was 12; William was 22; Mother Edith was 44. There are land deeds from the 1850s that show Abel, Edith, William purchasing adjacent 40 acre parcels. There is also a Gashum (Gershom?) Hunt who may be a relation. The additional two males under 10, two females 5-15 and three females 15-20 may also be children of Noah’s for whom we don’t have a record. In the 1850 Census we find William 32 (not married), Nancy 25, Eda 54 (Edith?), Alexander 22 and Allen (James Allen?) 20. The three girls 25-30 are now likely married but we’re missing the 15-20 year old girl and two boys 15-20 years who may have become members of separate households by the 1850 census.
Noah died in 1833 and was buried in the Bethel Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery, 299 Bethel Creek Church Rd, Raleigh, IL, 62977 (37.842220, -88.552500) where Abel, his wife Nancy Parker, and children Noah W., Perry and Polly are also found.
Most of the Hunt family history, from Abel, born 1812, on, is fairly complete. Opel Miller Hunt, the wife of Isaac Sylvester Hunt, kept a record in the family bible. Isaac was the son of George Riley Hunt, son of Abel, and was born in Ness County, Kansas in 1882, where George finally settled with his family.
George, born in Saline County, Illinois in 1846, married Amelia Missouri Odle and settled in Eden Lake, Stearns County, Minnesota in 1867. In 1880 he and his family traveled by covered wagon to Ness County, Kansas (and a milder climate) and established a homestead South-East of Bazine. On their new farm they raised children, Noah Lewis, Nancy Eunice, Rosa Lillian, Abel Emmanuel, Dora Vivian, Florence Eva, Olive Iona, Isaac Sylvester and Essie Denien. He built a home from hand-sculpted limestone that was quarried nearby. It was here that Isaac raised his family, which included his wife, Alice Amrine with children, Lavon, Dortha, Marvin and Wilfred; then wife, Opal Miller with children, Harold, Leon and Chester. Although deserted and in disrepair, the house still stands today.
Hunt Homestead 