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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (#47299887) submitted the bio.
The follow information was abridged from a brief history compiled by Golda Roberts; granddaughter to Jonathan Hunt and Susan Nanney Hunt and edited by Carl Hunt. Golda used accounts from Parley Hunt and Dorie Hunt as well as several other sources.
Susan was born 20 April 1843 to Matthew W. Nanney and Nancy Parker Williams in Rochester, Butler County, Kentucky.
Susan's life had been far from easy. Her parents had died about 1850 and her family was left orphaned at an early age. Susan was only eleven at the time. She often told what a struggle...
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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (#47299887) submitted the bio.
The follow information was abridged from a brief history compiled by Golda Roberts; granddaughter to Jonathan Hunt and Susan Nanney Hunt and edited by Carl Hunt. Golda used accounts from Parley Hunt and Dorie Hunt as well as several other sources.
Susan was born 20 April 1843 to Matthew W. Nanney and Nancy Parker Williams in Rochester, Butler County, Kentucky.
Susan's life had been far from easy. Her parents had died about 1850 and her family was left orphaned at an early age. Susan was only eleven at the time. She often told what a struggle the children had, to make a go of it. She remembered so vividly how she had been the sole support and care of her small brother. She had to tote him about on her back everywhere she went. She also lost several brothers and sisters about the same time that her parents died. The other brothers and sisters grew up and settled in the area and raised families there in Kentucky.
Susan Charlotte Nanney married Jonathan Hunt on the November 13, l865 at Gus, Muhlenberg, Kentucky. They lived in the beautiful wooded hills of Central Kentucky, near the present Post Office of Gus, in Muhlenberg County. Here in this vicinity both John and Susan were born and reared, and here they had their first three children, Idella, Parley and Udora. Jonathan worked with the lumber; He had a saw mill with a platform so he could saw out lumber for doors and window frames. Most of the houses were made out of logs, Jonathan and Susan's included. Jonathan also had a large building with a tall
shaft and a wheel on top. where he ground corn, which was their staple food.
Jonathan & his parents (John Hunt and Jane Coats) had joined the Mormon Church. His parents moved West to Utah to be with three of their sons (Wilson, Amos & Bradford) who were also members of the Mormon church, had moved there earlier. Johathan converted Susan to the church after they were married, but she wasn't baptized at that time because there was not the proper authority there at that time to perform the ordinance.
Jonathan and Susan had lived in Kentucky some time after his family had moved West, and Jonathan had developed the `lung sickness' (Consumption) that could have been asthma, TB or another respiratory disease, consequently his health was very poor, and he was far from a well man, but he longed to join his
folks out West. They had written many times, begging him to sell his property, even if he could only get enough to pay their way West, and they promised to help him as soon as he could manage to move there. They wanted him to move to Zion and join the Saints as well as be near them where they could help the family who so desperately needed help, as his condition had worsened and several times Susan had thought he was dying with him in such a serious condition, Susan's family (siblings) were very reluctant to see them start on such a long hard journey, with a good chance that he would never make it clear across the continent. They were afraid that he would die and leave her with three children and another one on the way. But in spite of all the odds, they decided to take the chance. In July 1873 they made the decision to move to Utah and join his mother and brothers. His father, John, had passed away a short time before in Ogden. He managed to sell his farm and all they owned for three hundred dollars, selling or giving away all they had with the exception of their clothes and a few personal belongings that they could take with them. They did bring with them two feather beds and half a dozen feather pillows that Susan had made before her marriage and which she treasured, as they were truly a luxury. She often mentioned her regrets at having to leave her saddle behind, as she loved to ride. She also brought along
some of her nice linens and a few of her nicer clothes. She was always ambitious and had made a lot of nice things to begin her marriage with, but she couldn't bring all the things she would have liked to.
So the family started their journey west. Jonathans brother, Jeff came for them with his team and wagon, and they loaded their things and took them to his place where they spent the night. Then the next morning, twelve miles to the Green River, where they boarded a Steamboat down the Green River to the Ohio River, then up the Ohio to Evansville. From Evansville they took the train and stopped off at
Council Bluffs, Iowa to visit Aunt Betsy (Medford), Johathan's sister, also his brother, Enoch. They stayed there for two weeks and then took the train for Ogden, Utah, where they stayed with Jonathan's Brother Wills for a few weeks, until they found a house to rent. Jonathan found enough odd jobs to buy them the bare necessities. Linda was born that fall, in October. The family had rented a little ranch about three miles from Ogden from a Mr. Hall the next spring. They didn't move there immediately but walked back and forth each day to plant and work in the fields, until the move later. On July 18, 1874; Parley, Idella and their mother (Susan) were baptized in the same stream next to the house where Parley was nearly drowned when they first purchase the ranch.
That winter Jonathan's brother Amos came up to Salt Lake from Hebron with his children, Linda and Amos who to be married in the Endowment House. After the wedding, they came to Ogden to see Jonathan and Susan. Amos was in quite comfortable circumstances. He had written for Jonathan and Susan to come to Hebron so that he could help them. Jonathan's health was so poor that the family sorely needed some assistance. Following Amos's advice they sold or gave away everything that they couldn't haul in the wagon. Amos's son Jimmy drove four horses and a wagon, up from Southern Utah and bought another wagon. With two teams and two wagons, Jimmy took the family back with him. Jonathan drove one outfit and fed a share of his crop to the team of four horses on the way.
Jimmy had brought his two sisters, Liza and Linda, with him.When Linda saw their new baby, she begged Susan to name her Linda, and she would buy her a new dress. Susan wasn't too fond of the name, but the girl coaxed so, that Susan finally gave in, and as a result baby Linda got a new pink calico dress, or at least the cloth to make one. When they got to Hebron, Uncle Amos did help them, but with Jonathan unable to support the family in any way, they needed more help than they received. It was a hard and sad struggle to keep the family fed and clothed. Hebron was near the present town of Enterprise. They lived in Old Hebron for two years. It was while living here that a son Jonathan Nephi was born on July 11 1877. Amos Hunt and John Pulsipher helped the family until Jonathan got a job with Bishop George Crosby, who had a contract maintaining the telegraph line from Parowan, Utah to Pioche, Nevada. His work was to cut and haul cedar posts which were tied with strips of rawhide to long pine poles and set in the ground to support the Telegraph line.
The next move was to Gunlock, Utah. Amos helped them move, and Jonathan was able to buy a piece of land. John (another of Amos's boys) who was named after Jonathan lived in Gunlock. Of all of Amos's folks, John was most kind to them, and helped them in every way he could. He had a small two roomed home there in Gunlock, but welcomed them into his home with genuine hospitality. They lived right there with them for a time. John had six children and Jonathan and Susan had five at that time, so with the parents there were fifteen people sharing two small rooms, but they were so grateful for John's kindness.
It was a little later that John helped them get the little farm. They owned a team, but feed was so scarce that Jonathan had to hobble them and turn them loose at night up on the hills where they could crop the feed. In the little Cove above Gunlock, on their little farm, they raised corn, cane and melons. Susan made molasses and peach preserves in barrels, and the children, as much as they were able, did all they could to help. In the winter Jonathan went with other townsmen to Leeds, Utah and worked for Bishop George Crosby, who had a wood or lumber contract for the Lubbick Mill, which processed the ore from the Silver Reef mine. Jonathan wasn't a bit well, suffering from the lung sickness that had plagued him for a number of years even before they had left Kentucky. He could cut only one cord of wood a day, for which he was paid $2.00. Sometimes he took his eldest son, Parley with him to help a bit. Susan always took her children with her, to glean behind the men as they cradled the wheat. One time when father got to feeling a little better, he went to Silver Reef mine to work hauling wood. He wasn't able to do much, and when he came back he hadn't made as much as mother had made while he was gone. She had gleaned five or six sacks of grain.
The lung sickness, Jonathan had for so many years finally made him bedfast. He lingered for a long time. We were alone with him in our little cabin, which was about half a mile above town. Finally some of Amos's boys came and stayed to help take care of him and were with us when he died, 18 Jan 1881.
About the fall of 1882 Weir Leavitt, who had married Susan's daughter, Idella, took Susan and the family to Bunkerville Nevada, to pick cotton grown by Myron Abbott and Dudley Leavitt. They picked the cotton on shares, and were boarded by whichever family that were working for at the time. After the picking was done they returned to Gunlock. Parley as the oldest, assumed the responsibility of his father's family, as a matter of course. The problem was not whether he should bend his entire effort toward their support, but whether how he should make his young efforts count most.
In about 1883 the family moved to Leeds, Utah, where Parley had employment working for Bishop Crosby and others doing what he could, while his mother took in washings and the girls, Dore and Lindie helped by working for families who could pay for work in their homes. Susan tried for a time, cooking for the freighters, a dozen or so, who hauled ore from the Silver Reef Mine to the Mill on the Virgin River, about six miles; however, they were not satisfied with her southern type cooking, which they were not used to. Her menu was so limited that the venture was doomed from the start, so she turned the boarding trade back to George Eldridge, who had kindly given her a try at it.
When Bishop Crosby sold out his holdings in Leeds and moved to Arizona, he advised the Hunts to move to Bunkerville, Nevada as Idella and Weir lived there. The bishop in Bunkerville was a good friend of Bishop Crosby, and he would look out for their welfare. Arriving in Virgin Valley, Susan and her young family stopped at the old Gin Mill about a mile above the present site of Bunkerville. There were several houses there then, and the Gin Mill was a busy place during the cotton season. Bishop Bunker offered them fifteen acres of land near the Gin Mill, about six acres which was cleared for cultivation, but Weir and others talked them into settling across the River at Mesquite. They stayed in Mesquite about a year and a half and learned to love the people there. The Hunts soon moved to Bunkerville. It was too late to take the Bishop's offer, but they were able to buy a few acres from him and a few more from Steve Bunker and Orange Leavitt. Included in the purchase was a small one-roomed shack located on a hill, above the `Big Ditch' overlooking their farm.
Meanwhile the years passed. full of hard work and sad events of family deaths. The boys had built a new house for their mother, Susan. Parley finished it while Nephi was on his mission. It was built of native rock, using clay and sand and home kilned lime from the hills to put them together. They hauled the lumber all the way from Parowan (150 miles away). When the house was finished, it had three large rooms, built with such thick walls that it was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Susan lived in this home until she died, and it still stands there on the upper end of Bunkerville.
. There is not much information on Susan Hunt in her later years. She was a hard working woman and cared for herself until the last when she became very ill. She had cancer of the breast and suffered a lot before she died. She outlived her husband by a good many years, rearing her family by herself enduring hardships and never complaining but doing the best she could with faith in God. She believed in caring for her own which she did. Her children learned a lot from her example of honesty, hard work, and faith in God. She left a large posterity and passed away on May 23, 1919. She outlived her husband by twenty eight years as he died in January 18, 1881. |
