Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 987 - 988 

MRS. THURSEY HUNTER, widow of the late Basil W. Hunter, came with her husband to this State in the pioneer days, and for a series of years experienced all the privations and hardships of frontier life, with the added misfortune of the grasshopper scourge. Through it all, however, she kept up the remarkable womanly courage with which nature had endowed her, and now, a well-to-do woman, living in the enjoyment of ease and comfort, feels amply repaid for the afflictions of those darker days. In her residence at No. 907 Pine street, West Side, she lives to recount the history of the early times, and is surrounded by hosts of friends who have learned to respect her for her excellent qualities of character, and admire her for her courageous spirit and genuine business ability.

            The earliest years of Mrs. Hunter's life were spent in Ohio and Indiana. Her birth took place in Coshocton County, Ohio, Nov. 23, 1839. Her parents were James and Electa (Terry) Richcreek, her father a native of Virginia and her mother of Pennsylvania. They spent their last years and passed from earth in Kosciusko County. She remained under the home roof until reaching womanhood, and Feb. 28, 1865, became the wife of Basil W. Hunter. Mr. H. was born in Knox County, Ohio, Nov. 7, 1841, and when twenty years of age started out for himself, migrating to Indiana, where he rented a tract of land, upon which the young people commenced life together in a dwelling after the fashion of that period. In due time they became the parents of three children--Ernestine, Volosco J. and Charles A. The two sons still reside with their mother; the daughter is the wife of John A. Moore; they live on the corner of Pine and Wichita streets.

            Mr. and Mrs. Hunter continued in Indiana eight years after their marriage, and in 1873 emigrated to Kansas and took up 160 acres of land in Garden Plain Township, in the extreme western part of this county. Fifteen months later they sold out, and coming into West Wichita purchased three lots, of which they took possession in 1875, adding thereto four acres for gardening purposes. In this enterprise Mr. Hunter became successful and secured the nucleus of the property to which his wife has since added through her own enterprise and good judgment. She has speculated in real estate considerably, and is now the owner of twenty-one lots and three houses. She has built seven houses in West Wichita, four of which she sold at a good figure. During her less fortunate years she never evaded any duty, but managed in every possible way to keep her property together and educate her children. She kept boarders and did whatever work it seemed necessary for her to do, and at the same time molded the character of her offspring so that they have become upright citizens and respected by all who know them. When her son Volosco J. was seventeen years of age she presented him with seventy-five acres of land near Cheney, in this county, which is now worth $2,000, and he owns two lots in the city purchased by her advice, for which he was offered $2,600 in gold, but refused the offer.

            Both Mr. and Mrs. Hunter united with the Methodist Church early in life, and Mr. H., politically, was a stanch Republican. He was little more than a youth at the outbreak of the late war, but enlisted as a Union soldier in Company B, 20th Indiana Infantry, being mustered into service in August, 1861. He received a serious wound at the battle of Shiloh which disabled him for further military duty, and on account of which he received his honorable discharge. The exposure and hardship which he endured while in the army, together with the wound which he had received, brought on a lung disease from which he suffered for a period of thirteen years, and which finally resulted in his death. He passed away at his home in Wichita, July 28, 1881.

            Mr. and Mrs. Hunter were living on their claim in Garden Plain Township during the grasshopper period of 1874. These insects appeared suddenly in countless numbers, and together with the growing crops destroyed every semblance of vegetation close to the ground. The Hunter's house was the last habitation on the western line of the county, and they being far from anyone who could render them assistance, suffered even for the common necessaries of life. Mrs. Hunter during that terrible time heard her children cry for bread when she had nothing to give them. The herders passing to and from the West would sometimes leave beef for them until money arrived from Mrs. Hunter's parents. The contrast between those days and the present suffices to make Mrs. Hunter amply contented with her lot, and enables her to feel for those less fortunate.

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