Information Sheet

 

 

R         Hunter family.

469                  Hunter-Hagler families, letters, 1864‑1880.

                                    One folder, photocopies and typescripts.

 

 

 

This is correspondence of the Hunter and Hagler families of Jasper, Lawrence, and Polk counties in Missouri.  The letters were written by Elizabeth Hunter and her daughters, Pris­cilla A. Hunter and Charlotte Elizabeth (Hunter) Hagler, and were addressed to another daughter, Margaret (Hunter) Newberry.  Topics include news of family and friends, turmoil during the Civil War, farm life, and religious matters.

 

Elizabeth Hoge ( ‑1870) and Moses Hunter (1808‑ ) married in Montgomery County, Vir­ginia, in 1832.  They were the parents of eleven children, all of whom were born in Virginia.  In 1857, the family moved to Missouri where they lived on a farm in the White Oak community in north­western Lawrence County or northeastern Jasper County, Missouri.

 

The family correspondence consists of letters to Margaret “Mag” Hoge Hunter (1836‑1925), the second child of Moses and Elizabeth Hunter.  Margaret married the Rev. Robert D. Newberry in 1858.  The Newberrys moved first to Illinois, and then, after the Civil War, to Virginia.  The letters to Margaret Newberry were written by her mother, Elizabeth, and her sisters, Charlotte Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hunter (1843‑1910), and Priscilla A. Hunter (1846‑1868).  Charlotte Eliza­beth married Lindsey “Linzy” Hagler, a native of Lawrence County, in 1861.  Priscilla lived with her parents until her death in 1868.

 

The collection includes thirteen letters beginning in July 1864 and continuing through De­cember 1880.  Five of the thirteen were written during the Civil War.  They tell of increas­ing in­stability and violence in Jasper and Lawrence counties, most of which is attributed to bush­whack­ers.  After the murders of several of their neighbors, and after having been robbed them­selves, the Hunters sold their farm in 1865 and left Missouri for Buckhart in Christian County, Illinois.  Lizzie and Linzy Hagler also left for Illinois, locating at Springfield.

 

The Hunters returned to Missouri after the war.  By 1870, Moses and Elizabeth were living near Mount Vernon.  Lizzie and her husband lived, successively, in Lawrence, Jasper, and Polk counties.  The postwar letters in the collection chronicle births and deaths, including that of Eliza­beth Hunter in 1870, and contain news of family members and acquaintances, re­ligious mat­ters, farm life, and events in the local communities.

 

 

 

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