Mariah Lily Hunt (1833 - 1895)

Born 1833 in Hancock County, Georgia, USA

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1895 at about age 62 in Hancock County, Georgia, USA

Biography

Daughter of Judge Nathan Coombs Sayre and Susan "Susie" Hunt. They were not married, and it seems the children went by their mother's name of Hunt, not Sayre. (If anyone has evidence to the contrary, please make the necessary changes.) [Note - In the 19th century (and earlier) children born outside of marriage had no legal right to use the father's surname. The child's surname was the mother's legal surname at the time of the child's birth. It was possible for the father to petition the legislature to "legitimatize" the child - by doing this the child's surname could be changed and the child would also be granted inheritance rights.]

Epitath:

"Hers was a life of trust in God."

Mariah "Cherokee Mariah Lilly" Hunt was born at Pomegranate Hall and later lived on Hunt's Hill in Sparta.

She was Baptized on February 1843 in the Mount Zion Presbyterian Church, Mount Zion in Hancock County.

Wife of Henry Alexander Hunt, Sr., C.S.A.

Henry Alexander (Sr.) and Mariah "Cherokee Mariah Lilly" (Hunt) Hunt had 8 children and they were:

1. Will Hunt (m. Elizabeth Green) 2. James "Mac" Hunt 3. Lula Hunt (m. Gilbert McLendon) 4. Adella Hunt (m. Warren Logan) 5. Henry Alexander Hunt, Jr., #13966450 (m. Florence S. Johnson, 13966539) 6. Sarah "Sallie" Hunt (m. Fleix Rogers) 7. Ella Hunt (m. Berzilia Payne) 8. Thomas Francis "Tom" Hunt

Ambiguous Lives. Free Women of Color in Rural Georgia, 1789 - 1879 (1991).

Author, Adele Logan Alexander (Mrs. Clifford Alexander), Washington, D.C.

The children of Nathan Sayre and Susan Hunt--dark-haired, dark-eyed, and light-skinned--soon provided evidence that they were anything but inferior. For example, their middle child, known as Cherokee Mariah Lilly, married a white man in about 1853, and her eight children and many grandchildren figured prominently in southern education and reform movements. Among them were Adella Hunt Logan, a graduate of Atlanta University and a leader of the black women's club movement; Henry A. Hunt, Jr., also trained at Atlanta University and later a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "black cabinet; and Tom Hunt, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute who moved west and served on the agriculture faculty at the University of California at Berkeley.

A genealogical study of the Hunt and Sayre families. The main character, Susan Hunt, was descended from a Native-American mother and an African-American father. She became the mistress of Nathan Sayre, a wealthy white businessman, lawyer, judge, and politician, who never married. His liaison with Hunt was not his first with a woman of color but was one that lasted until his death. Their relationship produced three children. The family lived in the opulent Pomegranate Hall sometime after 1830, and the children attended school and learned to play musical instruments. Upon the death of Sayre in 1853, Susan Hunt, with no visible means of support, moved in with the white widower James M. Hunt. Sayre deeded a lot to Hunt in 1878, and when he died, Susan received railroad stock, ensuring her financial security for the remainder of her life. One of Susan Hunt's children, Miriah, followed in her mother's footsteps and established a permanent relationship with a white man. From this union, eight children were born. One of them, the author's grandmother , Adella Hunt Logan, graduated from Atlanta University, taught at Tuskegee Institute, and was a strong advocate of female suffrage.

Sources

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94968787/mariah-hunt

• https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/nash.html

• https://muse.jhu.edu/article/420920/summary

• https://www.amazon.com/Ambiguous-Lives-Georgia-Community-Studies/dp/1557282153