Our mother's parents were Ernest Leon Hunt and Georgia Alice Moss.

Their earliest known ancestor was James Moss, Sr. born in Ireland on October 10, 1680 (yes, sixteen-eighty).
He and his family came to America in 1712 and settled in Pennsylvania.
His grandsons, James and Joseph Moss, served in the Cumberland Militia against the British
during the American Revolutionary War.

The Moss Family:

The Moss Family of West Alexander, in western Pennsylvania., circa 1910.
Their property fronted what was then called The National Road (today's Route 40).
Seated in front are Samuel Moss and his wife Rachel Crowe.
Samuel married Rachel after the death of his first wife Jane Danley.
Standing behind, from left, are their children Jane, Joseph, Georgia,
James Woods (known as Woods to everyone), and youngest child Margaret.
Missing from the photo are Samuel's four children from his first marriage, Uadah, Bird, Florence, and John.
They were already married at the time and had moved out of town.

Rachel Crowe Moss holding Edward Egan, a relative, circa 1913.

James W. "Woods" Moss, from an undated newsclipping.
Woods lived almost a century and spent his final years
with his family in Westchester County, New York.

Class photo, circa 1910.
Georgia and Margaret Moss earned their teaching degrees
at State Normal School in West Liberty, West Virginia,
just across the state line from West Alexander, PA.
The institution today is known as West Liberty College.

Georgia and Margaret, from the class portrait above.

A postcard of Georgia (center) and, presumably, her classmates from State Normal.
At five-foot six, she was a fairly tall woman for that time.

And here's Georgia's students (date & location unknown). Georgia stands to the right.

The Hunt Family:

The Hunts emigrated from the East Anglia region of England in the early 18th century and entered America through what is now Culpepper County, Virginia. They worked their way into the western end of Virginia, and automatically became West Virginians when that region seceded from Virginia to side with the north during the Civil War.

Here are most of the surviving children of Thomas N. Hunt and Mary E. Hoge,
posing with their widowed mother circa 1920.
Top row from left:
Richard, known as Dick,
Elizabeth, also known as Margaret,
Mary
and Emila, known as Emmy or Emily.
Bottom Row from left:
Saul, the twin brother of Dick,
Levi,
their mother, known as "Grandmammy" to her grandchildren,
John,
and Ernest, who married Georgia Moss.
Missing: Katherine, known as Kate

Kate (Katherine Hunt McNeeley) in a 1953 photo.
A relative, who shall remain nameless, remembers that
"She was the Dickens, but she was a load of fun."

Here are the wives of the Hunt brothers, starting from left:
Orie, wife of Levi Hunt,
Georgia Moss, wife of Ernest Hunt,
Blanch, wife of Dick Hunt,
Ellen, wife of Saul Hunt,
and Salome, known as Lomie, wife of John Hunt.
(John's wife was named Salome?? Make your "lost his head"joke here.)
Oh yeah, John worked as a funeral home director in Burton.
The child is Georgia's son, Joseph.
Date: 1920's.

Ernest Hunt, Georgia (Moss) Hunt,
and their Children

Georgia Moss and Ernest Hunt married in 1913 and built their home in Burton, West Virginia
where they raised three daughters including our Mom, and four boys.

The home of Georgia Moss and Ernest Hunt and their seven children
in Burton, West Virginia, as it looked in 1953.
Us kids always knew it as "The House on the Hill".

While Georgia and Ernest's home was under construction,
they lived next door in this cabin (1970's photo)
that had been built by the previous landowner.

It remains standing to this day! This 2005 movie details the cabin's interesting interior,
and includes an interview with Mom (Margaret Elizabeth) about its history.

Their first child, Ruth (left) was born in 1914. At right, Ruth poses with Edward Egan, a relative.

Georgia and her first four children. Ruth stands to the right, Tom stands to the left.
Sam sits on the left and Joe sits on Georgia's lap.
This photo dates from around 1920. George, Agnes, and Margaret have yet to be born.
Note the Model T Ford in the background.

Joseph, George and Sam in the 1930's. Barely visible under the tree's shade at far right is our Mom (Margaret Elizabeth), just a tiny girl then. They were true farm boys, doing everything from planting and harvesting to milking and butchering to supplement the family food budget. Notice how steep and hilly their property was.
Not pictured is Tom, who was ill at the time.

Joseph, George, and Sam all served in World War Two, and made it through.
But Tom didn't make it past age 15.

Tom died in 1938 at the age of 15 due to a congenital heart defect that, alas, could have been fixed by today's surgery.
This is the best picture I have of him, an underclass portrait from the1933 Fairmont High School yearbook.
Ordinarily he would have attended Hundred High School like his siblings, but because he was too physically weak to walk the steep, hilly terrain of the family property in Burton, he was sent to live with relatives thirty miles away in the City of Fairmont. But in the end his heart didn't last.

A strangely prophetic photo of Ernest Hunt.
In 1934, not long after this picture was taken, he was walking along this railroad
when a train struck and killed him,
leaving Georgia widowed and her 7 children, inluding my mother, fatherless.
Georgia never remarried.

With Poppa gone, eldest daughter Ruth. (above) helped to keep the family going
with her income as a schoolteacher. She was single until her early 50's when she married Ira Ice.

Georgia's youngest child, Margaret Hunt (my Mom) at age 14, poses near Fish Creek.
You can check out Mom's story and pictures here.

Some years later, Margaret poses behind her older sister Agnes,
who is wearing a "broomstick skirt". Check out those animals.
Margaret and Agnes have remained close to this day.

Agnes married a carpenter named Chester Cline and had three daughters:
(from left) Debbie, Becky and Lisa (in a 1965 photo)

After the war, Joseph Hunt married Lorraine Oliver and moved to Canton, Ohio.
Here he holds his daughter Jo Ellen. He also had a son named Randy who is now a professor.
Joseph suffered and died from leukemia in the 1970's.

Samuel Hunt in service during WW2, and as he appeared in 1994.
He married Airetta Delaney, and also moved to Canton, Ohio. They had one son named Kim.

George Hunt married Dorothy Mundhenk. They lived in Burton down the road from Ruth and Georgia.
They had two children, Doug and Sheila. (Pictures pending)

Left to right: My paternal grandmother holding up George's son Doug, Georgia Moss Hunt,
Georgia's daughter Margaret, and George's wife Dorothy holding her daughter Sheila.
Picture is from the 1953 home movie seen below.

Georgia (right) on her porch alongside Fish Creek in Burton,
chats with a cousin (unidentified) visiting from Texas.

This pic looks very strange to me.
I've always pictured my Grandmother in light color prints, or white - never black!

In the1950's, Margaret Moss (front), Georgia Hunt (seated behind)
and Ruth Hunt (standing next to her taller sister Margaret) visited New York City.
For Ruth, Georgia and the elder Margaret, this was their first trip to the Big Apple ever.
Georgia was the least travelled of the bunch. Just visiting Harrisburgh, the capital city of Pennsylvania,
had been a major, once-in-a-lifetime event for her.

Though she saw little of the world, Georgia said she bore no regrets because she knew
she would be seeing plenty of wonderful things in Heaven. I hope she did.

Georgia Hunt, from a 1960 home movie.
The following year she died at home, in her sleep,
just 5 days shy of her 72nd birthday.

ODDS AND ENDS

Here are some curious photos, not necessarily of family members, from the Hunt's collection:

A car wreck off of Route 250 in Burton, WV. Far as I know, this was NOT Ernest Hunts' car.

I don't know who this man is - but I like the composition. It reminds me of something
Andrew Wyeth or Norman Rockwell might have done.

And what spooky pictures are these?
It's a newborn baby being held up to the window by two different women.
Why would the photographer have to take the picture from the outside?
Maybe he/she had a contagious cold or flu, and wasn't allowed in? Just guessing.
Wonder who the baby is. Could it be me?

Mom's side:
THE HUNT and MOSS FAMILIES of WV and PA

The Moss Family:

The Hunt Family:

Ernest Hunt, Georgia (Moss) Hunt,
and their Children

ODDS AND ENDS

HUNT AND MOSS Family Trees

HUNT FAMILY

MOSS FAMILY

Mom's side: THE HUNT and MOSS FAMILIES of WV and PA

The Moss Family:

The Hunt Family:

Ernest Hunt, Georgia (Moss) Hunt, and their Children

ODDS AND ENDS

HUNT AND MOSS Family Trees

HUNT FAMILY

MOSS FAMILY

Mom's side:
THE HUNT and MOSS FAMILIES of WV and PA

Ernest Hunt, Georgia (Moss) Hunt,
and their Children