Rebecca Castner and Russel Arnold Hunt [192-34]

[192-34] REBECCA CASTNER, b Apr. 24, 1796; d July 8, 1826; dau Samuel and Mary M. (Wagener) Castner [192-8]: m Jan. 29, 1817, RUSSEL ARNOLD HUNT, b Mar. 11, 1795; d Jan. 26, 1863; s Silas and Hannah (Fisher) Hunt. Russel A. Hunt was Field Major of Militia, according to his grandson, Russel A. Hunt of Erie, Pa. Children. (2):

Russel A. Hunt married a second time to Ann M. Castner [192-37].

Previous to the birth of Russel A. Hunt, his father, Silas Hunt, lived somewhere in New Jersey. A hunter and trapper from this neighborhood, who had crossed over into Canada and followed the border down to Niagara Falls, related his experiences upon his return and stated that the finest country he had seen on his long trip was that section which included the chain lakes—Seneca, Crooked and Canadaigua—especially that section along Seneea Lake. This description so inspired the Hunt family that Adam and Silas Hunt and three other men took their axes and a bushel of wheat, and blazed a trail through the forest by marking the trees for more than half the distance. They selected a location which is now Milo Township, Yates County, New York. They partly cleared a smail portion of land and sowed the wheat, and then returned home.

The following spring they started out with their families, taking their cattle and other possessions, and set up their homes in the wilderness. Here Russel A. Hunt was born under a basswood tree, while the log house was being built. He had an older brother named Henry, who at this time was thirteen years of age; when he became of marriageable age and wanted to start out for himself, his father said, “All I can give you is a yoke of three-year old steers, but I have no chain, nor is there any in this section of the country. However, I loaned a chain to a neighbor in New Jersey, before we moved here, and if you care to go to New Jersey to get it you can have it.’’ Being no tenderfoot, young Henry took his old flintlock musket, some dried beef, and started out. He forded streams, slept in the bushes, and killed game en route, following the blazed trail that was made seven or eight years previously. He arrived in New Jersey in due course of time, shouldered the chain, and returned to New York. It took him six weeks to make this trip, and upon his return he used the chain to clear up a 200-acre farm, thus establishing himself in Milo Township.

Russel A. Hunt himself became one of the most successful farmers in his section. His wheat crop was very large for the time and neighborhood, and he raised often fifteen hundred bushels in a season. It is stated that at Christmas time he would take a load of wheat to the mill; then early on

Christmas morning, before folks were astir, he would leave a bag of flour, together with other necessaries of life, on doorsteps where people were in need. [Russel A. Hunt, Erie, Pa.]