THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
The
Hunter-England House
Drive along Highway 129/19 south
from Blairsville about eight miles. On the
left, in a narrow field between the road and
What remains of the old Hunter-England house is a reminder of
the sturdy ways of the early settlers. The
house may very well be the oldest dwelling still remaining from the
1830s in all of
John Hunter
(born about 1775), father of William Johnson Hunter (and other
children), migrated to
The Hunter cabin was typical of those built when white settlers
first came into the mountains. Over the
window openings then were wooden shutters, not windowpanes. Glass windows were added later.
The house was built of poplar logs. A
root cellar was dug beneath the floor, with a trap-door access from
within the cabin. The Hunter family stored
root crops such as potatoes and turnips for winter use.
Cabbage, too, could be kept in the root cellar, as could apples. The side room, a sort of lean-to, was added
later and used as a kitchen.
Two of John Hunter’s sons, Andrew and Jason, were in the Georgia
Militia in 1836. They probably
participated in the Trail of Tears to move the Cherokees west. Andrew M. went farther abroad with his
military service and was killed in the Mexican-American War in
February, 1848, at
By 1848, the only child at home with elder John Hunter was his
37-year old single daughter, Martha. John
deeded the house and lot to Martha, glad to turn it to someone who
would appreciate her ancestral roots and take care of the house. John Hunter died in August, 1848.
He was buried in an unmarked grave in
John’s daughter, Harriet Hunter, married Daniel England, a
brother to Margaret “Peggy” England who had married Harriet’s brother,
William Johnson Hunter. Harriet and Daniel
had moved back to
Daniel and Harriet England either purchased the cabin and land
from Martha, or they inherited it. Four of
this couple’s children, John, Martha, Mary and Harriet, were born in
As you drive by and see the old house on the east side of
Georgia Highway 129, know that a lot of living took place there. The late Charles Roscoe Collins, writing about
the house in 1987, said of it: “The old
house is truly an ancestral treasure. For
more than one hundred and fifty years it has been the focus of the
lives and fortunes of many families.”
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail