Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-01-23

gu az AAAE0Alh = Il
love for books and reading developed
early. "When eleven or twelve, " her
journal records, al drew uncle Toms
Cabin, from the school library Sat-
urday noon, and after dinner hid un-
der the unused hen-house to read,
u~nheeding my mothers call to dish
washing"
In 1855 the Hunt family moved to
Ellenville, Ulster County, N. va
region then spoken of by Connecticut
friends as "out west"
Here they lived seven years, and
here at the age of fourteen, Emeline
joined the church. Here, too, she
attended the Ellenville Academy,
"gaining facility in percentages, and
other calculations" as well as in the
Latin, science, higher mathematics,
logic and evidences of Christianity
which the rather formidable curricu-
lum included-though reading and
spelling still had places of honor.
When sixteen she visited her uncle in
Roxbury, enjoyed seeing the Boston
Museum and hearing promenade con-
eerts, and met a Harvard student who
told her she reminded him of Jane
Eyre! This visit was brought to a
tragic close, however, by news of the
drowning of her sister Harriet, a loss
she forgot.
When only seventeen the young
girl began to teach in a winter school
in Greenfield, ten miles from Ellen
vile, at a salary of $40 a month,
boarding, as one of the school board
wrote, "with the inhabitens." GA
man who had attempted to teach
there the winter before had been
turned out. l had considerable tron-
BILE with unruly boys but stayed out
my time" she related afterwards.
The following year she again at
tended the Ellenville Academy and
was one Of its first two graduates.
When the family moved back to Con-
necticut soon after in 1868, she Sc
cured a position in the Rockville
schools. 1t was at this time that she
met a Mrs. Brown from Ironton, Mo-,
who happened to be visiting in Rock
vile. This lady with remarkable in
sight told the young Miss Hunt, as
yet adamant to various suitors, that
she knew the man she ought to marry
a Missouri acquaintance, DR.. Edwin
May, then a surgeon in the Union
Army.
1t was through Mrs. Brown that
Miss Hunt received an appointment
as teacher in a boarding school at Ar
cadia, Mo-, and started thither in
August, 1864. She found her new
work agreeable, though it was inter
rupted in a few weeks by Prices raid.
Prices men ate the schools breakfast
one morning, but its members were
hOU OlnOI WlDC nOlCoCOus CulOA lOISOO
soon %reoccupied the place, and through
the winter of 1865 the 18th Illinois
Cavalry was stationed at Arcadia, to
the social gain of its younger teachers,
who were entertained at their camp
and rode horseback with the officers.
Miss Hunt used to play chess with n
of them till told by her strict Method
list principal that she was leading the
young man astray.
1t was not until the fall of 1865,
after the war was over, that Miss
Hunt met DR.. May. He vas a New
Highlander like her, born in Massa-
chusetts, a physician by profession,
but wv engaged in the lumber BUSH
ness. Their acquaintance progressed
during the next two years, and in
July, 1867, they we're married in st.
Louis at the home of an Uncle, San
ford Hunt. After the wedding Jour-
ney east to visit their relatives, the
pair returned to Missouri, and went
to housekeeping in a house Gin the
woods" near the sawmill DIR. May and
his partners had put up. Here Mrs.
! May encountered real pioneer life.
Mail had to be brought to Ironton,
the nearest town, ten miles away.
Provisions must be secured there OF
from the countryside. Sometim es
the young housekeeper had trials
when unexpected guests arrived and
"found only ham and potatoes enough
for two"-''but I had a fine large des.
sert," her diary adds cheerily. 81
mended to a foolish extent" she
writes of these days, ''tsught a neigh
Dor girl a little, helped care for the
/, sick, read considerable; ] felt that
made my husband comfortable
( In something over a year the Mays
I moved back to less primitive life II
Ironton. Here were born their three
: daughters, Harriet, Clara and Minnie,
e and here Mrs. May formed warn
|, friendships with a number of families