Chambers County Alabama Photos.....Hunter, William H. H. & Margaret Isabel Abernathy
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Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://theusgenweb.org/al/chambers/
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Contributed by Don L. Clark Aug 2006
Hunter, William H. H. & Margaret Isabel Abernathy
The above cabinet card photograph of W.H.H. Hunter and wife
Margaret Isabell Abernathy Hunter was made ca. 1900.
William Henry Harrison Hunter (1819 - 1903) son of George and Mary Worthington Hunter, married 1856 to Margaret Isabell Abernathy (1835-1910) daughter of Samuel and Jane Boyd Abernathy in Chambers County, AL.
The following children were born of this marriage:
George Samuel Young (1857 - 1859); Mary Amanda Jane (1858 - 1926) who married John Langdon Paley Bullock; John Worthington Abernathy (1860 - 1943) who married 1st Lera Woodruff and 2nd Edith Pamelia Clemmons; Nancy Ann Naomi Elizabeth (1863 - 1940) who married James Thornwell Spence; Charles Nathan Lee (1865 - 1960) who never married; Sarah Rhoda Frances Ladora "Sally" (1868 - 1953) who never married; William Warrington Costley (1870 - 1957) who married Beulah Williams; Mary Isabell Adeline "Addie" (1872 - 1959) who never married; and Webster Donelly Aldine (1875 - 1925) who married Olive Addison.
W.H.H. Hunter and family were icons of the Buffalo settlement located three miles north of LaFayette. In the 1890s they built a large, rambling Victorian style house on the northeast corner of the intersection of present day Hwy. 431 and County Road 105. This house replaced an earlier log house the family had lived in but burned in the late 1960s.
W.H.H. Hunter and Margaret Abernathy Hunter are buried at Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery at Marcoot.
From an undated newspaper clipping of "The LaFayette Sun":
Short Sketch of the Life of W.H.H. Hunter
I was born on the 23rd day of September 1819 and the son of George Hunter of County Antrim, Ireland. My mother was Mary Worthington, daughter of John Worthington of Newberry, South Carolina.
In January, 1836 I came to LaFayette, Chambers County, Alabama. I worked three years in a blacksmith shop in that place. In 1839 I went to school in LaFayette. I went in the grocery business in 1840 and did business in LaFayette for 13 years. In 1853 I was one of three who forced a partnership and built a steam grist mill near the town and worked at that mill two years.
In 1855 was elected Tax Assessor of this county and reelected in 1856. In 1857 was elected sheriff of the county and served three years. In 1859 I settled at Buffalo where I now reside. In 1861 I was appointed by Abraham Mustin, State Collector, Tax Assessor for the Confederate government for this county and served in that office during the entire war.
From 1876 until November 1898, when I was disabled from a hurt received in the employ of the Central Railroad, I was Railroad Agent at this place, with exception of 13 months during that time, and was also postmaster from 1872 until 1901.
I was named for General William Henry Harrison and he was the first president that I voted for, after becoming of age. Ever since I settled at my present home in 1859, I have farmed some and continued to labor on the farm until prevented by old age.
On the 13th day of July, 1856 I married to Margaret Isabell Abernathy. We had born nine children, five sons and four daughters. With the exception of one son, all my children and my wife are living. I am now in my eighty third year and have experienced the bright and gloomy side of life, and have found that all that glitters is not gold.
