Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

198 ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
were prosperous farmers; their home was spacious and their
hospitahty princely. Uncle John Hunt, brother of Spencer
Hunt, was a man of wealth, and he and Aunt Abbie stayed a
good share of their time with Uncle Spencer and Aunt 'Rusha.
There was a room in their home called "Aunt Abbie 's room."
Uncle John had in early days been a shipper on the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers between Cincinnati and New Orleans, and
had made a success of it.
As they had no children they took the place of benefactor
to the Hunt boys, who were quite superior in ability. Uncle
John sent them to college somewhere in the East. After they
had finished school, bemg a railroad man he secured good
positions for them, and altogether the generosity of this
childless pair caused them to be much admired and much
quoted in the neighborhood where they hved and among their
relatives. They had brought up a niece, Cal (Carrie) Hunt,
given her a boarding school finish, and acting in the capacity of
guardians had carefully watched her interests and saved her
money for her. As Uncle John and Aunt Abbie made their
home with Uncle Spencer, it was Aunt 'Rusha who mothered
Cal and her brother Howard. Their parents had died of consumption
when they were little children. Uncle Spencer Hunt
was more to Howard than most fathers are to sons, and he and
Uncle John educated him and started him out well in life.
As Cal and Howard grew up they were far above the
average, although Cal had not been trained to self-control.
Aunt 'Rusha always apologized for her by saying that as a
child Cal was delicate; that her young mother had died when
she was a babe, and that they scarcely expected the girl to grow
to maturity. It is true that the young mother had consumption
when Cal was born; but the forecast of her indulgent relatives
was not correct, for she lived to be almost 70, long after the
guardians who had so zealously saved her property had passed
from earth, and at last she died in poverty. Howard lived to
mature years, only to return to Uncle Spencer Hunt's to die
of consumption in the high noon of his life, but in sincere
Christian hope.
I still recall with pleasure the evening JuHa and I spent at