Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/151

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��GRANITE MONTHLY,

A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE

Devoted to Literature, Biography, History, and State Progress.

��YoL. VII.

��MAY, 1884.

��Xo. 5.

��PROF. LUC IAN HUNT, A. M.

��IJY J. N. McCLINTOCK.

��The names Hunt and hound both owe their origin to the same word — hiind, which is a German word signi- fying dog, and is, without doubt, a name of great antiquity, existing among our Saxon ancestors in the woods of northern Germany or Jutland long be- fore their invasion of England. This is proved not only from its being de- rived from one of the oldest words of one of the oldest nations in Europe, but, also, from the wide prevalence of the name. The Smiths may be more numerous, — though that is doubtful, — but not so extensively scattered. Wherever the English language is spoken, there are found Hunts. In every state of the Union they turn up, —whether among Southerners or North- erners, in Louisiana or Maine or Oregon. They are not wanting among the gentry of England, with armorial blazonry ; or among the squatters of Australia; and those acquainted with German litera- ture know that it is nothing unusual to meet the kindred name Hund in al- most any branch of their various read- ings.

Another proof that the name is very ancient is the fact that the original race of Hunts branched off into various tribes and families so long ago that all trace of relationship between these sep- arate branches is lost. VII — 7

��But notwithstanding thi.^, however separated, whether "titled or poverty- stricken, it is evident they have all sprung from the same original Teutonic Hund or hound, long centuries ago, in the northern wilds of Europe, or possi- bly thousands of }'ears since, before their emigration from the highlands of Armenia.

Among the various branches of mod- ern days was the "Amesbury Line," so called from Amesbury, Mass., whence came three brothers and settled in New Hampshire. Two of these, Humphre}^ and William, went to Guilford, while the third, Philip, senior, removed to Sanbornton, into what was afterward called the " Hunt Neighborhood," about midway between the Square and Union Bridge. He had twelve children. Of these, the oldest, Philip, junior, re- mained on the homestead till his death. Eleven children were born to him, of whom Anthony Colby, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the seventh. When only eighteen years of age, he married Mary Chase, of Deerfield, N. H., about two months younger than himself; a woman of strong character, industrious, careful and conscientious. This union lasted above half a century, he surviving to the 75 th year of his age, and she to the Syth.

One peculiarity may be noted here

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