My Genealogy Hound

HUNT, JEREMIAH F., far., Sep. 6; P. O. Donnellson; son of John, of the Concord family of Hunts, who was born in Concord, Mass., 1760, and was 15 years of age at the firing of the first gun upon the British at Concord, at the breaking-out of the Revolution, and, at 16, enlisted and served through the war; at an early age, he was apprenticed to the shoemaker’s trade, and, at 21 years of age, went to Northboro, Mass., where he, in 1797, married Hulda Allen, born in Petersham, Mass., May 3, 1772; in 1806, they moved to Palmer, Hampden Co., Mass., where the father purchased a farm, which the sons cultivated while he continued to work at his trade; had eleven children; six lived to manhood and womanhood; the eldest, John, Jr., born in Northboro June 27, 1799, and died Nov. 1, 1830; Roxana, born in Northboro, June 18, 1802, and retained her residence in her native State until her death, which occurred in 1878; Annis, born in Northboro, Oct. 11, 1803, and became the wife of Harvey Smith, of Palmer, Mass., and is still a resident of that place; has four children; her eldest son died at Roanoke Island, having gone out with Gen. Burnside, and participated at that battle; Jeremiah F., the only member of his father’s family who came West, was born in Northboro, Feb. 21, 1806, and was 6 weeks of age on the removal of his parents to Palmer; at the age of 21, he left home, and the spring of 1827, was employed by the Hampshire Manufacturing Co., at Ware village, for nine months; then was at home farming and, in the fall of 1828, returned to Ware village, and engaged with the factory, dyeing and bleaching nankeens; remained there until early in the spring of 1832; thence to Providence, R. I.; then visited different cities, and at Spencer, Mass., again engaged in a factory at dyeing; the winter of 1832-33, he went to Hartford, Conn., where he engaged as dyer with ___ Colt, the father of Sam. Colt, the inventor of the noted pistols and revolvers; the spring of 1834, he went to Lynn, Mass., and worked at dyeing and printing; the winter of 1835-36, in Alfred, Me., he studied surveying, which he has practiced in Lee Co. and surrounding counties; in 1836, he returned to Lynn and entered the employ of the Boston and Lynn Silk, Cotton and Woolen Dyeing and Printing Co.; the next winter he passed at home and at school at Andover; in the summer of 1838, came to Lee Co., and purchased a claim, on which he still resides, with 249 acres of land, valued at $40 per acre; still occupies the cabin supposed by some to be about the first built in this part of the county, erected solely by the aid of auger and ax, and bearing date 1835.