Search billions of records on Ancestry.com
   

June 2009

Hunter

The story of our Hunter line is all too brief. William Hunter (1792-1831) brought his family to America from Belfast, Ireland in December 1827 aboard the brig "William" and settled in Mt Carmel, Abbeville, SC. The family included his wife, Elizabeth White and four small children. By 1832, both parents were dead. The orphaned children were taken in by friends and neighbors.
1. The youngest, Elizabeth was adopted and raised by a Mrs. Milford. At the age of 18, Elizabeth married David Haynie and eventually moved to Norcross, GA. Elizabeth and her eldest brother, James maintained contact.
2. The next youngest, Margaret, was variously reported to have been taken to Indiana or Ohio. The name of the family that took her is unknown. However, she was located on the 1840 Indiana census. Margaret Hunter b. 21 Apr 1825 in Ireland married Daniel Powell on 14 Oct 1844 in Clinton Co., IN.
3. Little is known of William, the younger son, though he is reported to have never married. We don’t know if he survived to adulthood.
4. James (1819-1855), the eldest, was about 13 when his father died and he grew to adulthood in the Mt Carmel area. In 1842, he moved to Macon Co., AL, There he went to work on the farm of Bennett Branscomb. Family lore says that James had known the Branscomb family in SC. After a year, he eloped with the Branscomb’s only daughter and set up housekeeping in nearby Union Springs, AL. The House that James built for his family in the early 1850’s still stands on Hunter Street and is the oldest house in the town.
Their first child, William Stanley Hunter (1846-1937) was one of the first children born in the village. His father, James, died in 1855 leaving his widow to provide for five small children. A small and slight lad of 15, Willie, as he was known in Union Springs, was rejected by the CSA army. He was persistent and did have some adventures in and around Atlanta, GA toward the close of the war. After the war, Willie was the publisher of the Union Springs Herald. In 1872, he moved to TX, first to Waco, then to Gatesville for two years and finally to Belton. He joined the local paper as head of the Mechanical Dept and stated his profession as "Printer". In 1879, he married Mary Alice Law (1857-1921), the daughter of Jarrett D Law, and set up housekeeping in Belton. In 1883, He and a partner bought the Belton Journal and W S Hunter became its publisher. In 1889, he sold the paper and purchased a local stationary and book store. Over the years, he added a pharmacy and other merchandise lines. Hunter & Co. became a familiar name in the community for almost forty years.
William S and Alice Hunter had four children. Our current generation has come from the second child, Elizabeth Clayton Hunter Bowen.
William Stanley was the only child of James Hunter to "go west". The other four stayed closer to home.
1. John Alphonse Hunter also left Union Springs for a time, but he traveled east. In the early 1880’s, he moved his family to Leesburgh, FL where he was elected Mayor twice. Possibly due to illness, the family returned to Union Springs where he died in 1887. He had two sons and three daughters.
2. James Bennett Hunter stayed in Union Springs where he served as mayor and in other municipal offices. James had four sons and two daughters.
3. Elizabeth Caroline Hunter married Alma Moore. The Moore family had one son and three daughters reach adulthood.
4. Emma Clayton Hunter married Frank Anderson. They had one son and three daughters. Much of the data on the "Alabama" Hunters was furnished or verified by Frank Chappell, a descendant of Emma and Frank.
The families of both Hunter daughters raised their families in Union Springs. Though separated by great distance, the extended family stayed in close contact and frequently exchanged visits. W S Hunter subscribed to the Union Springs Herald throughout his life in TX. He also maintained membership in the Printer’s union.
Data and photos related to the extended Hunter Family were furnished by descendants of the William S Hunter family and many others, including, Fred Tubbs, Beth Service, Frank Chappell, James Cook, Gary Clifton, Ralph Simpson

Branscomb
Our Branscomb line appears to have come from Richard "the immigrant", born 1722 in England and died 1775 in Brunswick County, VA. He arrived as an indentured servant and made good in the new world. The first born of Richard I and his wife, Sarah Proctor, was Richard II. Among the second Richard’s six children was Zachariah, who begot Bennett Hill Branscomb, the father of Lucinda Caroline Branscomb (1826-1913), the wife of our James Hunter. The fates were not kind to Bennett and his wife, Eliza Belotte. At the outset of the civil war, they had over 400 acres of good land with seven sons and a similar number of slaves to work the land. Three sons died in the war, a third was maimed and a forth was dismissed due to illness. Eliza and Bennett spent their later years living with daughter Lucinda in Union Springs. Bennett left an estate consisting of a horse, saddle with harness and a gun.
Frank Chappell, descendant of James Hunter, wrote "Dear Sister", a book based on over 100 letters written mostly by the son’s of Bennett Branscomb to their sister, Lucinda Caroline during the Civil war.
The Belotte’s (there are several variations on the spelling) were among the Huguenots who came to America in the early 1700’s fleeing persecution by the King and the Catholic Church in France. Between 1618 and 1725, up to 7,000 of the 200,000 Huguenots that fled France landed in America. Our line settled in the Mt Carmel region of the Abbeville District, SC. A glance at her photograph reveals Eliza’s nature. Family lore notes that in her final years, blind and living in the "Hunter home" with Lucinda’s extended family, the child who was best behaved during the day got to read to Granny Branscomb in the evening. Eliza was 94 yrs old when she died in 1897. Eliza’s brother, Jacob, moved west about the same time as the Branscombs. He settled in Holmes Co., MS and started his family. Before the Civil War, his eldest son, Andrew (1836-1899), moved to Houston Co., TX, a few miles east of Crockett and enlisted in the 13th Texas Cavalry. The Community became known as Belott in Honor of Andrew.
A great deal of research has been done on the Branscomb’s by Fred Tubbs, John Ottinger, Frank Chappell and John Rufus Branscomb, all descendants of Zachariah Branscomb. They have graciously shared that data with us.
Photos and News clips from the Mary Alice Hunter files were furnished by Beth Service

 Law-Baird
Our Law family tale begins with William Law (1740-1786) and family arriving in Charleston, SC on the ship, Prince Henry, about 1763. The family’s progress from SC to MS to LA to TX has been thoroughly researched and recorded over the years by several people (William’s children were prolific), including our great grandmother, Alice Law Hunter. The first Jarrett DeLeslie (1826-18620, in our line, was born in SC and moved at an early age with his family to southwest MS. As an adult he moved to Natchitoches parish, LA and established Willow Grove, a plantation of some 400 acres along the east bank of the Red River, about thirty miles south of present day Shreveport. His life was cut short in the Civil war by Typhoid fever, but his name has been carried forth by his descendants. The "Jarrett" may have come from his great great granduncle, Jared Law, because parallel lines of the family also have Jarretts. The origin of "DeLeslie" is unknown.
Two of Jarrett’s sisters married Baird brothers. William Leroy Baird (1796-1883) was a veteran of the War of 1812 and was said to have been with General Jackson at New Orleans. His first wife was the Aunt of Jarrett Law. At 53, William married Jarrett’s 19 yr. old sister, Mary Ann and had 10 more children. William’s younger brother, Archibald W Baird (1813-1879) married Fanny Law, another sister of Jarrett. Archie witnessed the probate of Jarrett‘s father’s estate and later Jarrett’s estate. He was a witness at Jarrett’s wedding and the wedding of Jarrett’s widow when she re-married after Jarrett’s death. The lives of the Baird brothers and their offspring were closely entwined with our Law family through the civil war and the reconstruction era. The Baird family became prominent in Cleburne, TX in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Linda Giles, a descendant of Jarrett’s brother, Harvey has done extensive research on the Law and Baird families, which she has shared. Much data came from the Mary Alice Hunter files and photo albums furnished by Beth Service and Nathan Galloway, great grandchildren of W S Hunter

 Roper
Our Roper family traces back to Charles Roper in 1720 England. We don’t know the date of his arrival in VA, but his son, David, our ancestor, was born in Dinwiddie County, VA in 1742. Our connection to this family is Mary Elizabeth Roper Law Hughes (1835-1921) in antebellum Louisiana. She was the wife of Jarrett Law and a true matriarch, widowed in the Civil war and left with a family of small children. She raised the four survivors as well as a second family with her second husband, Robert F Hughes, in Bell County, TX. From her issue came the Laws, Hunters, Hughes, Proctors and Terrells of our family tree a close network for some 50 years (1875-1925).
About three years after Jarrett’s death, Mary married Robert F Hughes (1829-1924). Family lore notes that he had been her overseer at Willow Grove. They moved near Salado, Bell Co., TX in 1872 and built a new home. From a one room, dirt floor cabin, they worked to build what they called, the Prairie Home. A sketch of the Prairie Home floor plan, provided by one of the many relatives who paused there on their exodus from LA during the reconstruction era, is among the support files. Mary was reported to have told her granddaughter, Mary Alice Hunter, that they chose Salado because of the college. Jarrett, Jr attended Salado College and then Louisville Medical School in KY. The Ropers are a large and well-documented group of families.
Sources for family include Dr. L. David Roper, Mary Alice Hunter files furnished by Beth Service

 Proctor-Terrell-Hughes
The Proctor and Terrell families, as linked to our family, were in colonial VA. They followed the migration track through AL, MS and LA to TX much the same as the Law’s. The Proctors had arrived in Bell County, TX in the 1850’s, the Hughes came in 1872 and James Terrell may have accompanied or followed the Hughes family. He apparently came alone from the Red River area of LA. In 1873, a year after their arrival, Martha Law married James Terrell and Fanny Law married Henry Proctor. Two or three Proctor households, the Hughes family and the Terrells lived side by side along the road between Belton and Salado, near the Lampasas river, for nearly 30 years. In 1879, Mary Alice Law wed William Stanley Hunter. In 1886, after he had completed courses at Salado College and a medical school in Kentucky, the young Jarrette DeLeslie Law, Jr. married Mildred Barton and began his medical practice in Salado. Mildred’s father and brother were also doctors.
Mary Roper Law Hughes and Robert Hughes had three children. Two sons, Harry and Ralph survived to adulthood.
Our family may also link to the Proctors much earlier. Richard "the immigrant" Branscomb (1722-1775) married Sarah Proctor, the daughter of Robert. Some on-line family trees link Robert’s father, Joshua Proctor, through his son Nicolas, to James Newton Proctor, the progenitor of the Bell County Proctors
James and Martha Law Terrell moved the family back to southeast Louisiana in 1903 after 30 years in Bell Co., TX. The Hunter, Terrell and Proctor family maintained close contact and exchanged visits into the 1930’s.
The Mary Alice Hunter files and photos held by Beth Service contained much data on both families.
Deloris Wynne-Riley and Mary Lou Terrell Covington also assisted with Terrell information.
Mary Lou Proctor provided data on the Proctor family