Daughter of John Hunt and Lois Barnes Pratt
Married Orrin Kartchner, 11 Oct 1883, St. George, Washington, Utah
Children - Sarah Leone Kartchner, Kenner Casteel Kartchner, Thalia Kartchner, Jane "Jennie" Kartchner, Celia Kartchner, Lafayette Shepherd Kartchner
History - The home at the time of Annella's birth was located near the Santa Ana River, and on the morning of February 15, as the family were seated at the breakfast table, their house was surrounded by floodwaters, overflowing the low banks of the river.
John Hunt hurriedly hitched up his team and they drove to his sister Harriet Mayfield's home which was on higher ground farther from the river. Here, at midnight of that day, Annella Hunt was born.
When Annella was a year old, the family made the journey by team across the great American Desert and settled in Beaver City, Utah. Their three small daughters had whooping cough during that journey. Just before leaving California John Hunt had all his family vaccinated, even Baby Annella just past a year old. This precaution proved to be a very great blessing to them all fifteen years later.
They lived in Beaver for eleven years and the family went to good schools. Besides the three older daughters, two brothers and three other sisters were born, here. John Hunt was sheriff of Beaver County during the entire time and his family had many anxious times when he was after men who had committed serious crimes, or had escaped from the jail.
John finally decided to move away from Beaver and took his family to a small settlement on the Sevier River, where they remained for two years. They next joined a group of pioneer who were going into Arizona or New Mexico, where new settlements were being made. It was a sad event in the lives of the parents and older children to bid farewell to their dear ones and lifelong friends.
The long journey was begun the day after Annella's fifteenth birthday, Feb. 16, 1877. The company was composed of twelve covered wagons, some horse teams and some oxen, with a herd of loose animals to be driven. As they journeyed through Southern Utah, they often suffered from heat and lack of water. At one time their loose animals went without water for fifty-six hours. They crossed the Colorado River on the lower ferry, called Pierce's Ferry. They were familiar with all the fresh watering places and springs, from men who had gone ahead to blaze the trail, and open the unknown wilderness for the hardy ones brave enough to take their families and build homes in the barren valleys where only Indians had ever lived.
By the time they reached the foot of the San Francisco Mountains, they were travel-worn and some of their teams gave out, so they camped for a week. At such times the mother and older girls would do the family washing, being prepared with tub and washboard for this purpose. Also, they would bake many loaves of bread, having learned to "set sponge" and do all the other necessary processes of breadmaking around a campfire.
Here at this camp John Hunt was able to exchange cows and oxen and loose horses for a fine team of American horses to continue the journey. But again there was a shortage of water and one night in April as they were crossing the long desert between what is now Flagstaff and Winslow, Annella Hunt and her brother Lewis were walking and driving the loose cattle. Suddenly the girl discovered a white object in a tree. She found it to be writing paper and knew that it must be of great importance to them. They stopped their father to tell him of the discovery. He lighted the lantern and found it to be a notice of two large tanks of water not far from the road. It had been left for their benefit by men who had gone ahead. The company spent two hours getting their thirsty animals down into those rocky tanks to be watered. They were very thankful for the finding of that little piece of paper, for they felt that it was providential guidance to keep them from perishing.
When they reached the settlement of Sunset on the Little Colorado River they rested for two days. The leaders there urged them to remain and make their home but John Hunt decided to go on to the settlement in Sevoia Valley, New Mexico. Two missionaries to the Indians were already there with their families, but outside of four or five families the chief settlers of Sevoia were Navajo and Zuni Indians and Mexicans. These native inhabitants, however, proved to be civilized enough to become good friends of the white settlers, especially in times of distress and sickness.
During that summer of 1877 Annella Hunt taught a little school under a bowery. Her youngest brothers and sisters and the children of the other settlers were her pupils and her salary was a new dress, given by Mr. Boyce as payment for teaching his boys.
During the late fall of 1877 a company of Mormon emigrants arrived in New Mexico from Arkansas. The family of Thomas West had contracted small pox from camping in a Mexican house in Albuquerque, when the mother gave birth to a pair of twin babies. They drove on to the Sevoia settlement, all of them either ill or exposed to the disease. John Hunt and his family cared for them, and for others who took the disease, throughout the long cold winter in the most terrible siege of smallpox that could be imagined or endured.
Those who had been vaccinated fifteen years before, even Annella who was only a baby, escaped the disease and were called upon to their uttermost physical endurance to nurse the sick ones and to lay away those who died. The three younger sisters and two brothers all had small pox in quite serious form but none of them died.
In the fall of 1878, John Hunt was called to be the Bishop of the new Snowflake settlement, on Silver Creek. His family hailed the change with delight as the Sevoia settlement had been so isolated and so lonely.
Annella was the teacher of the first little school in Snowflake, in the spring of 1879 which she taught in one of the little adobe stables built by Mr. Stinson, the first owner of the site of the Silver Creek settlement. The stable had been carefully cleaned for a meeting house. She did not keep the names of her pupils but has always wished she had for very often a man or woman past middle age will come to her and say, "I was one of the pupils in that first little school, which you taught in Snowflake."
The following winter, she also taught the first school in the town of Taylor, three miles south of Snowflake. In the fall of 1881, Annella and her oldest sister, Ida, taught the Snowflake school and in the spring of 1882 they taught the school in Taylor. Three or four months were as long as the county funds permitted the school to continue.
The three oldest Hunt sisters, Ida, May and Annella, had passed a Teachers Examination under Mr. James Stinson, who was county Judge and they had certificates which entitled them to teach in Arizona schools. Annella taught altogether seven terms of school, most of them of only a few months duration.
In September 1883, Annella Hunt left her home to become the bride of Orin Kartchner. They made a journey by team to be married in the Temple at St. George, Utah, traveling in company with a brother of the bridegroom. They were married October 11, 1883. They remained in Utah nearly two months, the young husband helping with threshing and harvesting, then visiting with relatives and friends in Beaver and Richfield. They reached home, Dec. 17, 1883.
Their home was one log room on the old Kartchner lot. On November 30, 1884, their little baby Celia was born. When she was three months old, the saddest event that ever came into the lives of the Hunt family occurred. Their mother, Lois Pratt Hunt was burned so badly that she died a few hours later. Annella's baby was asleep in a rocking chair in the room. In the grief and excitement the baby was forgotten for several minutes, when someone suddenly asked, "Where's the baby, Anne?" As she rushed to see if she was alright, a brother-in-law placed her in Annella's arms. Bits of burned hair and clothing were all over her though she herself was unharmed. The sweet little one live to be one year and one week old, and was then taken from her loving parents, leaving their hearts desolate.
Mrs. Kartchner was a member of the first dramatic company organized in Snowflake, and for many years she acted in plays of all sorts with important roles. The last time "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played in Snowflake a committee visited Annella with an insistent request that she play the part of "Topsy" which she had successfully portrayed many years before. She felt that it would be impossible as she was at the time, fifty-two years of age. Finally she consented to take "Topsy" if her brother John could be persuaded to take "Uncle Tom". Such was the ability of these two with a fine supporting cast, that a most excellent portrayal of these famous Negro characters was presented to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. When the play, "The Two Orphans" was presented, Annella was selected as the blind girl, "Louise" the sister "Henrietta" being Mrs. Robert Flake Clayton. A most beautiful and touching performance was given of this famous French play.
The last part Mrs. Kartchner played was in "The Old-fashioned Mother" when she was fifty-seven years old. Such was her dramatic ability that when she was to weep in her part she actually shed real tears, and in this old-fashioned mother so vividly did she portray the pathos of a mother deserted and about to be sent to the poor house that sobbing could be heard from every part of the auditorium of the theatre.
Her guitar playing, both in playing tunes and accompaniment for singing and her beautiful alto voice, had always been special features of the famous "Hunt Sisters" singing. Her voice was rich and mellow, and remarkably preserved at the age of seventy-four.
She had a real poetic talent which seemed to develop after her third or fourth child was born. While in her thirties and forties she did a great deal of composing. She had about forty poems, especially songs, for some of which she also composed the music, to her credit. Her most important efforts were two epic poems, one for her brother-in-law, David K. Udall's fiftieth birthday, Sept. 7th, 1901, written by special request of her sister Ida Hunt Udall. The other was for the golden wedding celebration of Bishop John Bushman and his wife, Feb. 11, 1915. Many a farewell and reception, many a sad heart at times of death and affliction, many a birthday and occasions of all sorts have been enriched and enlivened by a song or poem from her pen, with its personal touch and cheering tone.
In her own church, Annella H. Kartchner had held many positions throughout her life, and has been active and faithful in the performance of every duty, in all the organizations, as secretary, councilor, teacher, song-leader, and as Ward Clerk over a period of ten years.
She never had very good health, even when she was a child. She had in her life-time several serious illnesses, among them, "septic sore throat" as it was called, typhoid fever, pneumonia, and once a serious attack of what was known as "quick consumption". But her wonderful faith, her strict observance of the "Word of Wisdom" of her church, and careful observance of simple rules of health, have preserved her life to a good age, with fair health and retention of her faculties to a marked degree.
The Golden Wedding Anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner was celebrated in Snowflake in 1933 with an excellent program composed throughout by the sons and daughters. Two special features of this program were a duet sung by Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner with guitar accompaniment, and a guitar duet which they had played together at the time of their marriage. Both still played the guitar with remarkable beauty of touch, time, and melody.
Married Orrin Kartchner, 11 Oct 1883, St. George, Washington, Utah
Children - Sarah Leone Kartchner, Kenner Casteel Kartchner, Thalia Kartchner, Jane "Jennie" Kartchner, Celia Kartchner, Lafayette Shepherd Kartchner
History - The home at the time of Annella's birth was located near the Santa Ana River, and on the morning of February 15, as the family were seated at the breakfast table, their house was surrounded by floodwaters, overflowing the low banks of the river.
John Hunt hurriedly hitched up his team and they drove to his sister Harriet Mayfield's home which was on higher ground farther from the river. Here, at midnight of that day, Annella Hunt was born.
When Annella was a year old, the family made the journey by team across the great American Desert and settled in Beaver City, Utah. Their three small daughters had whooping cough during that journey. Just before leaving California John Hunt had all his family vaccinated, even Baby Annella just past a year old. This precaution proved to be a very great blessing to them all fifteen years later.
They lived in Beaver for eleven years and the family went to good schools. Besides the three older daughters, two brothers and three other sisters were born, here. John Hunt was sheriff of Beaver County during the entire time and his family had many anxious times when he was after men who had committed serious crimes, or had escaped from the jail.
John finally decided to move away from Beaver and took his family to a small settlement on the Sevier River, where they remained for two years. They next joined a group of pioneer who were going into Arizona or New Mexico, where new settlements were being made. It was a sad event in the lives of the parents and older children to bid farewell to their dear ones and lifelong friends.
The long journey was begun the day after Annella's fifteenth birthday, Feb. 16, 1877. The company was composed of twelve covered wagons, some horse teams and some oxen, with a herd of loose animals to be driven. As they journeyed through Southern Utah, they often suffered from heat and lack of water. At one time their loose animals went without water for fifty-six hours. They crossed the Colorado River on the lower ferry, called Pierce's Ferry. They were familiar with all the fresh watering places and springs, from men who had gone ahead to blaze the trail, and open the unknown wilderness for the hardy ones brave enough to take their families and build homes in the barren valleys where only Indians had ever lived.
By the time they reached the foot of the San Francisco Mountains, they were travel-worn and some of their teams gave out, so they camped for a week. At such times the mother and older girls would do the family washing, being prepared with tub and washboard for this purpose. Also, they would bake many loaves of bread, having learned to "set sponge" and do all the other necessary processes of breadmaking around a campfire.
Here at this camp John Hunt was able to exchange cows and oxen and loose horses for a fine team of American horses to continue the journey. But again there was a shortage of water and one night in April as they were crossing the long desert between what is now Flagstaff and Winslow, Annella Hunt and her brother Lewis were walking and driving the loose cattle. Suddenly the girl discovered a white object in a tree. She found it to be writing paper and knew that it must be of great importance to them. They stopped their father to tell him of the discovery. He lighted the lantern and found it to be a notice of two large tanks of water not far from the road. It had been left for their benefit by men who had gone ahead. The company spent two hours getting their thirsty animals down into those rocky tanks to be watered. They were very thankful for the finding of that little piece of paper, for they felt that it was providential guidance to keep them from perishing.
When they reached the settlement of Sunset on the Little Colorado River they rested for two days. The leaders there urged them to remain and make their home but John Hunt decided to go on to the settlement in Sevoia Valley, New Mexico. Two missionaries to the Indians were already there with their families, but outside of four or five families the chief settlers of Sevoia were Navajo and Zuni Indians and Mexicans. These native inhabitants, however, proved to be civilized enough to become good friends of the white settlers, especially in times of distress and sickness.
During that summer of 1877 Annella Hunt taught a little school under a bowery. Her youngest brothers and sisters and the children of the other settlers were her pupils and her salary was a new dress, given by Mr. Boyce as payment for teaching his boys.
During the late fall of 1877 a company of Mormon emigrants arrived in New Mexico from Arkansas. The family of Thomas West had contracted small pox from camping in a Mexican house in Albuquerque, when the mother gave birth to a pair of twin babies. They drove on to the Sevoia settlement, all of them either ill or exposed to the disease. John Hunt and his family cared for them, and for others who took the disease, throughout the long cold winter in the most terrible siege of smallpox that could be imagined or endured.
Those who had been vaccinated fifteen years before, even Annella who was only a baby, escaped the disease and were called upon to their uttermost physical endurance to nurse the sick ones and to lay away those who died. The three younger sisters and two brothers all had small pox in quite serious form but none of them died.
In the fall of 1878, John Hunt was called to be the Bishop of the new Snowflake settlement, on Silver Creek. His family hailed the change with delight as the Sevoia settlement had been so isolated and so lonely.
Annella was the teacher of the first little school in Snowflake, in the spring of 1879 which she taught in one of the little adobe stables built by Mr. Stinson, the first owner of the site of the Silver Creek settlement. The stable had been carefully cleaned for a meeting house. She did not keep the names of her pupils but has always wished she had for very often a man or woman past middle age will come to her and say, "I was one of the pupils in that first little school, which you taught in Snowflake."
The following winter, she also taught the first school in the town of Taylor, three miles south of Snowflake. In the fall of 1881, Annella and her oldest sister, Ida, taught the Snowflake school and in the spring of 1882 they taught the school in Taylor. Three or four months were as long as the county funds permitted the school to continue.
The three oldest Hunt sisters, Ida, May and Annella, had passed a Teachers Examination under Mr. James Stinson, who was county Judge and they had certificates which entitled them to teach in Arizona schools. Annella taught altogether seven terms of school, most of them of only a few months duration.
In September 1883, Annella Hunt left her home to become the bride of Orin Kartchner. They made a journey by team to be married in the Temple at St. George, Utah, traveling in company with a brother of the bridegroom. They were married October 11, 1883. They remained in Utah nearly two months, the young husband helping with threshing and harvesting, then visiting with relatives and friends in Beaver and Richfield. They reached home, Dec. 17, 1883.
Their home was one log room on the old Kartchner lot. On November 30, 1884, their little baby Celia was born. When she was three months old, the saddest event that ever came into the lives of the Hunt family occurred. Their mother, Lois Pratt Hunt was burned so badly that she died a few hours later. Annella's baby was asleep in a rocking chair in the room. In the grief and excitement the baby was forgotten for several minutes, when someone suddenly asked, "Where's the baby, Anne?" As she rushed to see if she was alright, a brother-in-law placed her in Annella's arms. Bits of burned hair and clothing were all over her though she herself was unharmed. The sweet little one live to be one year and one week old, and was then taken from her loving parents, leaving their hearts desolate.
Mrs. Kartchner was a member of the first dramatic company organized in Snowflake, and for many years she acted in plays of all sorts with important roles. The last time "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played in Snowflake a committee visited Annella with an insistent request that she play the part of "Topsy" which she had successfully portrayed many years before. She felt that it would be impossible as she was at the time, fifty-two years of age. Finally she consented to take "Topsy" if her brother John could be persuaded to take "Uncle Tom". Such was the ability of these two with a fine supporting cast, that a most excellent portrayal of these famous Negro characters was presented to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. When the play, "The Two Orphans" was presented, Annella was selected as the blind girl, "Louise" the sister "Henrietta" being Mrs. Robert Flake Clayton. A most beautiful and touching performance was given of this famous French play.
The last part Mrs. Kartchner played was in "The Old-fashioned Mother" when she was fifty-seven years old. Such was her dramatic ability that when she was to weep in her part she actually shed real tears, and in this old-fashioned mother so vividly did she portray the pathos of a mother deserted and about to be sent to the poor house that sobbing could be heard from every part of the auditorium of the theatre.
Her guitar playing, both in playing tunes and accompaniment for singing and her beautiful alto voice, had always been special features of the famous "Hunt Sisters" singing. Her voice was rich and mellow, and remarkably preserved at the age of seventy-four.
She had a real poetic talent which seemed to develop after her third or fourth child was born. While in her thirties and forties she did a great deal of composing. She had about forty poems, especially songs, for some of which she also composed the music, to her credit. Her most important efforts were two epic poems, one for her brother-in-law, David K. Udall's fiftieth birthday, Sept. 7th, 1901, written by special request of her sister Ida Hunt Udall. The other was for the golden wedding celebration of Bishop John Bushman and his wife, Feb. 11, 1915. Many a farewell and reception, many a sad heart at times of death and affliction, many a birthday and occasions of all sorts have been enriched and enlivened by a song or poem from her pen, with its personal touch and cheering tone.
In her own church, Annella H. Kartchner had held many positions throughout her life, and has been active and faithful in the performance of every duty, in all the organizations, as secretary, councilor, teacher, song-leader, and as Ward Clerk over a period of ten years.
She never had very good health, even when she was a child. She had in her life-time several serious illnesses, among them, "septic sore throat" as it was called, typhoid fever, pneumonia, and once a serious attack of what was known as "quick consumption". But her wonderful faith, her strict observance of the "Word of Wisdom" of her church, and careful observance of simple rules of health, have preserved her life to a good age, with fair health and retention of her faculties to a marked degree.
The Golden Wedding Anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner was celebrated in Snowflake in 1933 with an excellent program composed throughout by the sons and daughters. Two special features of this program were a duet sung by Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner with guitar accompaniment, and a guitar duet which they had played together at the time of their marriage. Both still played the guitar with remarkable beauty of touch, time, and melody.
Daughter of John Hunt and Lois Barnes Pratt
Married Orrin Kartchner, 11 Oct 1883, St. George, Washington, Utah
Children - Sarah Leone Kartchner, Kenner Casteel Kartchner, Thalia Kartchner, Jane "Jennie" Kartchner, Celia Kartchner, Lafayette Shepherd Kartchner
History - The home at the time of Annella's birth was located near the Santa Ana River, and on the morning of February 15, as the family were seated at the breakfast table, their house was surrounded by floodwaters, overflowing the low banks of the river.
John Hunt hurriedly hitched up his team and they drove to his sister Harriet Mayfield's home which was on higher ground farther from the river. Here, at midnight of that day, Annella Hunt was born.
When Annella was a year old, the family made the journey by team across the great American Desert and settled in Beaver City, Utah. Their three small daughters had whooping cough during that journey. Just before leaving California John Hunt had all his family vaccinated, even Baby Annella just past a year old. This precaution proved to be a very great blessing to them all fifteen years later.
They lived in Beaver for eleven years and the family went to good schools. Besides the three older daughters, two brothers and three other sisters were born, here. John Hunt was sheriff of Beaver County during the entire time and his family had many anxious times when he was after men who had committed serious crimes, or had escaped from the jail.
John finally decided to move away from Beaver and took his family to a small settlement on the Sevier River, where they remained for two years. They next joined a group of pioneer who were going into Arizona or New Mexico, where new settlements were being made. It was a sad event in the lives of the parents and older children to bid farewell to their dear ones and lifelong friends.
The long journey was begun the day after Annella's fifteenth birthday, Feb. 16, 1877. The company was composed of twelve covered wagons, some horse teams and some oxen, with a herd of loose animals to be driven. As they journeyed through Southern Utah, they often suffered from heat and lack of water. At one time their loose animals went without water for fifty-six hours. They crossed the Colorado River on the lower ferry, called Pierce's Ferry. They were familiar with all the fresh watering places and springs, from men who had gone ahead to blaze the trail, and open the unknown wilderness for the hardy ones brave enough to take their families and build homes in the barren valleys where only Indians had ever lived.
By the time they reached the foot of the San Francisco Mountains, they were travel-worn and some of their teams gave out, so they camped for a week. At such times the mother and older girls would do the family washing, being prepared with tub and washboard for this purpose. Also, they would bake many loaves of bread, having learned to "set sponge" and do all the other necessary processes of breadmaking around a campfire.
Here at this camp John Hunt was able to exchange cows and oxen and loose horses for a fine team of American horses to continue the journey. But again there was a shortage of water and one night in April as they were crossing the long desert between what is now Flagstaff and Winslow, Annella Hunt and her brother Lewis were walking and driving the loose cattle. Suddenly the girl discovered a white object in a tree. She found it to be writing paper and knew that it must be of great importance to them. They stopped their father to tell him of the discovery. He lighted the lantern and found it to be a notice of two large tanks of water not far from the road. It had been left for their benefit by men who had gone ahead. The company spent two hours getting their thirsty animals down into those rocky tanks to be watered. They were very thankful for the finding of that little piece of paper, for they felt that it was providential guidance to keep them from perishing.
When they reached the settlement of Sunset on the Little Colorado River they rested for two days. The leaders there urged them to remain and make their home but John Hunt decided to go on to the settlement in Sevoia Valley, New Mexico. Two missionaries to the Indians were already there with their families, but outside of four or five families the chief settlers of Sevoia were Navajo and Zuni Indians and Mexicans. These native inhabitants, however, proved to be civilized enough to become good friends of the white settlers, especially in times of distress and sickness.
During that summer of 1877 Annella Hunt taught a little school under a bowery. Her youngest brothers and sisters and the children of the other settlers were her pupils and her salary was a new dress, given by Mr. Boyce as payment for teaching his boys.
During the late fall of 1877 a company of Mormon emigrants arrived in New Mexico from Arkansas. The family of Thomas West had contracted small pox from camping in a Mexican house in Albuquerque, when the mother gave birth to a pair of twin babies. They drove on to the Sevoia settlement, all of them either ill or exposed to the disease. John Hunt and his family cared for them, and for others who took the disease, throughout the long cold winter in the most terrible siege of smallpox that could be imagined or endured.
Those who had been vaccinated fifteen years before, even Annella who was only a baby, escaped the disease and were called upon to their uttermost physical endurance to nurse the sick ones and to lay away those who died. The three younger sisters and two brothers all had small pox in quite serious form but none of them died.
In the fall of 1878, John Hunt was called to be the Bishop of the new Snowflake settlement, on Silver Creek. His family hailed the change with delight as the Sevoia settlement had been so isolated and so lonely.
Annella was the teacher of the first little school in Snowflake, in the spring of 1879 which she taught in one of the little adobe stables built by Mr. Stinson, the first owner of the site of the Silver Creek settlement. The stable had been carefully cleaned for a meeting house. She did not keep the names of her pupils but has always wished she had for very often a man or woman past middle age will come to her and say, "I was one of the pupils in that first little school, which you taught in Snowflake."
The following winter, she also taught the first school in the town of Taylor, three miles south of Snowflake. In the fall of 1881, Annella and her oldest sister, Ida, taught the Snowflake school and in the spring of 1882 they taught the school in Taylor. Three or four months were as long as the county funds permitted the school to continue.
The three oldest Hunt sisters, Ida, May and Annella, had passed a Teachers Examination under Mr. James Stinson, who was county Judge and they had certificates which entitled them to teach in Arizona schools. Annella taught altogether seven terms of school, most of them of only a few months duration.
In September 1883, Annella Hunt left her home to become the bride of Orin Kartchner. They made a journey by team to be married in the Temple at St. George, Utah, traveling in company with a brother of the bridegroom. They were married October 11, 1883. They remained in Utah nearly two months, the young husband helping with threshing and harvesting, then visiting with relatives and friends in Beaver and Richfield. They reached home, Dec. 17, 1883.
Their home was one log room on the old Kartchner lot. On November 30, 1884, their little baby Celia was born. When she was three months old, the saddest event that ever came into the lives of the Hunt family occurred. Their mother, Lois Pratt Hunt was burned so badly that she died a few hours later. Annella's baby was asleep in a rocking chair in the room. In the grief and excitement the baby was forgotten for several minutes, when someone suddenly asked, "Where's the baby, Anne?" As she rushed to see if she was alright, a brother-in-law placed her in Annella's arms. Bits of burned hair and clothing were all over her though she herself was unharmed. The sweet little one live to be one year and one week old, and was then taken from her loving parents, leaving their hearts desolate.
Mrs. Kartchner was a member of the first dramatic company organized in Snowflake, and for many years she acted in plays of all sorts with important roles. The last time "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played in Snowflake a committee visited Annella with an insistent request that she play the part of "Topsy" which she had successfully portrayed many years before. She felt that it would be impossible as she was at the time, fifty-two years of age. Finally she consented to take "Topsy" if her brother John could be persuaded to take "Uncle Tom". Such was the ability of these two with a fine supporting cast, that a most excellent portrayal of these famous Negro characters was presented to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. When the play, "The Two Orphans" was presented, Annella was selected as the blind girl, "Louise" the sister "Henrietta" being Mrs. Robert Flake Clayton. A most beautiful and touching performance was given of this famous French play.
The last part Mrs. Kartchner played was in "The Old-fashioned Mother" when she was fifty-seven years old. Such was her dramatic ability that when she was to weep in her part she actually shed real tears, and in this old-fashioned mother so vividly did she portray the pathos of a mother deserted and about to be sent to the poor house that sobbing could be heard from every part of the auditorium of the theatre.
Her guitar playing, both in playing tunes and accompaniment for singing and her beautiful alto voice, had always been special features of the famous "Hunt Sisters" singing. Her voice was rich and mellow, and remarkably preserved at the age of seventy-four.
She had a real poetic talent which seemed to develop after her third or fourth child was born. While in her thirties and forties she did a great deal of composing. She had about forty poems, especially songs, for some of which she also composed the music, to her credit. Her most important efforts were two epic poems, one for her brother-in-law, David K. Udall's fiftieth birthday, Sept. 7th, 1901, written by special request of her sister Ida Hunt Udall. The other was for the golden wedding celebration of Bishop John Bushman and his wife, Feb. 11, 1915. Many a farewell and reception, many a sad heart at times of death and affliction, many a birthday and occasions of all sorts have been enriched and enlivened by a song or poem from her pen, with its personal touch and cheering tone.
In her own church, Annella H. Kartchner had held many positions throughout her life, and has been active and faithful in the performance of every duty, in all the organizations, as secretary, councilor, teacher, song-leader, and as Ward Clerk over a period of ten years.
She never had very good health, even when she was a child. She had in her life-time several serious illnesses, among them, "septic sore throat" as it was called, typhoid fever, pneumonia, and once a serious attack of what was known as "quick consumption". But her wonderful faith, her strict observance of the "Word of Wisdom" of her church, and careful observance of simple rules of health, have preserved her life to a good age, with fair health and retention of her faculties to a marked degree.
The Golden Wedding Anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner was celebrated in Snowflake in 1933 with an excellent program composed throughout by the sons and daughters. Two special features of this program were a duet sung by Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner with guitar accompaniment, and a guitar duet which they had played together at the time of their marriage. Both still played the guitar with remarkable beauty of touch, time, and melody.
Married Orrin Kartchner, 11 Oct 1883, St. George, Washington, Utah
Children - Sarah Leone Kartchner, Kenner Casteel Kartchner, Thalia Kartchner, Jane "Jennie" Kartchner, Celia Kartchner, Lafayette Shepherd Kartchner
History - The home at the time of Annella's birth was located near the Santa Ana River, and on the morning of February 15, as the family were seated at the breakfast table, their house was surrounded by floodwaters, overflowing the low banks of the river.
John Hunt hurriedly hitched up his team and they drove to his sister Harriet Mayfield's home which was on higher ground farther from the river. Here, at midnight of that day, Annella Hunt was born.
When Annella was a year old, the family made the journey by team across the great American Desert and settled in Beaver City, Utah. Their three small daughters had whooping cough during that journey. Just before leaving California John Hunt had all his family vaccinated, even Baby Annella just past a year old. This precaution proved to be a very great blessing to them all fifteen years later.
They lived in Beaver for eleven years and the family went to good schools. Besides the three older daughters, two brothers and three other sisters were born, here. John Hunt was sheriff of Beaver County during the entire time and his family had many anxious times when he was after men who had committed serious crimes, or had escaped from the jail.
John finally decided to move away from Beaver and took his family to a small settlement on the Sevier River, where they remained for two years. They next joined a group of pioneer who were going into Arizona or New Mexico, where new settlements were being made. It was a sad event in the lives of the parents and older children to bid farewell to their dear ones and lifelong friends.
The long journey was begun the day after Annella's fifteenth birthday, Feb. 16, 1877. The company was composed of twelve covered wagons, some horse teams and some oxen, with a herd of loose animals to be driven. As they journeyed through Southern Utah, they often suffered from heat and lack of water. At one time their loose animals went without water for fifty-six hours. They crossed the Colorado River on the lower ferry, called Pierce's Ferry. They were familiar with all the fresh watering places and springs, from men who had gone ahead to blaze the trail, and open the unknown wilderness for the hardy ones brave enough to take their families and build homes in the barren valleys where only Indians had ever lived.
By the time they reached the foot of the San Francisco Mountains, they were travel-worn and some of their teams gave out, so they camped for a week. At such times the mother and older girls would do the family washing, being prepared with tub and washboard for this purpose. Also, they would bake many loaves of bread, having learned to "set sponge" and do all the other necessary processes of breadmaking around a campfire.
Here at this camp John Hunt was able to exchange cows and oxen and loose horses for a fine team of American horses to continue the journey. But again there was a shortage of water and one night in April as they were crossing the long desert between what is now Flagstaff and Winslow, Annella Hunt and her brother Lewis were walking and driving the loose cattle. Suddenly the girl discovered a white object in a tree. She found it to be writing paper and knew that it must be of great importance to them. They stopped their father to tell him of the discovery. He lighted the lantern and found it to be a notice of two large tanks of water not far from the road. It had been left for their benefit by men who had gone ahead. The company spent two hours getting their thirsty animals down into those rocky tanks to be watered. They were very thankful for the finding of that little piece of paper, for they felt that it was providential guidance to keep them from perishing.
When they reached the settlement of Sunset on the Little Colorado River they rested for two days. The leaders there urged them to remain and make their home but John Hunt decided to go on to the settlement in Sevoia Valley, New Mexico. Two missionaries to the Indians were already there with their families, but outside of four or five families the chief settlers of Sevoia were Navajo and Zuni Indians and Mexicans. These native inhabitants, however, proved to be civilized enough to become good friends of the white settlers, especially in times of distress and sickness.
During that summer of 1877 Annella Hunt taught a little school under a bowery. Her youngest brothers and sisters and the children of the other settlers were her pupils and her salary was a new dress, given by Mr. Boyce as payment for teaching his boys.
During the late fall of 1877 a company of Mormon emigrants arrived in New Mexico from Arkansas. The family of Thomas West had contracted small pox from camping in a Mexican house in Albuquerque, when the mother gave birth to a pair of twin babies. They drove on to the Sevoia settlement, all of them either ill or exposed to the disease. John Hunt and his family cared for them, and for others who took the disease, throughout the long cold winter in the most terrible siege of smallpox that could be imagined or endured.
Those who had been vaccinated fifteen years before, even Annella who was only a baby, escaped the disease and were called upon to their uttermost physical endurance to nurse the sick ones and to lay away those who died. The three younger sisters and two brothers all had small pox in quite serious form but none of them died.
In the fall of 1878, John Hunt was called to be the Bishop of the new Snowflake settlement, on Silver Creek. His family hailed the change with delight as the Sevoia settlement had been so isolated and so lonely.
Annella was the teacher of the first little school in Snowflake, in the spring of 1879 which she taught in one of the little adobe stables built by Mr. Stinson, the first owner of the site of the Silver Creek settlement. The stable had been carefully cleaned for a meeting house. She did not keep the names of her pupils but has always wished she had for very often a man or woman past middle age will come to her and say, "I was one of the pupils in that first little school, which you taught in Snowflake."
The following winter, she also taught the first school in the town of Taylor, three miles south of Snowflake. In the fall of 1881, Annella and her oldest sister, Ida, taught the Snowflake school and in the spring of 1882 they taught the school in Taylor. Three or four months were as long as the county funds permitted the school to continue.
The three oldest Hunt sisters, Ida, May and Annella, had passed a Teachers Examination under Mr. James Stinson, who was county Judge and they had certificates which entitled them to teach in Arizona schools. Annella taught altogether seven terms of school, most of them of only a few months duration.
In September 1883, Annella Hunt left her home to become the bride of Orin Kartchner. They made a journey by team to be married in the Temple at St. George, Utah, traveling in company with a brother of the bridegroom. They were married October 11, 1883. They remained in Utah nearly two months, the young husband helping with threshing and harvesting, then visiting with relatives and friends in Beaver and Richfield. They reached home, Dec. 17, 1883.
Their home was one log room on the old Kartchner lot. On November 30, 1884, their little baby Celia was born. When she was three months old, the saddest event that ever came into the lives of the Hunt family occurred. Their mother, Lois Pratt Hunt was burned so badly that she died a few hours later. Annella's baby was asleep in a rocking chair in the room. In the grief and excitement the baby was forgotten for several minutes, when someone suddenly asked, "Where's the baby, Anne?" As she rushed to see if she was alright, a brother-in-law placed her in Annella's arms. Bits of burned hair and clothing were all over her though she herself was unharmed. The sweet little one live to be one year and one week old, and was then taken from her loving parents, leaving their hearts desolate.
Mrs. Kartchner was a member of the first dramatic company organized in Snowflake, and for many years she acted in plays of all sorts with important roles. The last time "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was played in Snowflake a committee visited Annella with an insistent request that she play the part of "Topsy" which she had successfully portrayed many years before. She felt that it would be impossible as she was at the time, fifty-two years of age. Finally she consented to take "Topsy" if her brother John could be persuaded to take "Uncle Tom". Such was the ability of these two with a fine supporting cast, that a most excellent portrayal of these famous Negro characters was presented to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. When the play, "The Two Orphans" was presented, Annella was selected as the blind girl, "Louise" the sister "Henrietta" being Mrs. Robert Flake Clayton. A most beautiful and touching performance was given of this famous French play.
The last part Mrs. Kartchner played was in "The Old-fashioned Mother" when she was fifty-seven years old. Such was her dramatic ability that when she was to weep in her part she actually shed real tears, and in this old-fashioned mother so vividly did she portray the pathos of a mother deserted and about to be sent to the poor house that sobbing could be heard from every part of the auditorium of the theatre.
Her guitar playing, both in playing tunes and accompaniment for singing and her beautiful alto voice, had always been special features of the famous "Hunt Sisters" singing. Her voice was rich and mellow, and remarkably preserved at the age of seventy-four.
She had a real poetic talent which seemed to develop after her third or fourth child was born. While in her thirties and forties she did a great deal of composing. She had about forty poems, especially songs, for some of which she also composed the music, to her credit. Her most important efforts were two epic poems, one for her brother-in-law, David K. Udall's fiftieth birthday, Sept. 7th, 1901, written by special request of her sister Ida Hunt Udall. The other was for the golden wedding celebration of Bishop John Bushman and his wife, Feb. 11, 1915. Many a farewell and reception, many a sad heart at times of death and affliction, many a birthday and occasions of all sorts have been enriched and enlivened by a song or poem from her pen, with its personal touch and cheering tone.
In her own church, Annella H. Kartchner had held many positions throughout her life, and has been active and faithful in the performance of every duty, in all the organizations, as secretary, councilor, teacher, song-leader, and as Ward Clerk over a period of ten years.
She never had very good health, even when she was a child. She had in her life-time several serious illnesses, among them, "septic sore throat" as it was called, typhoid fever, pneumonia, and once a serious attack of what was known as "quick consumption". But her wonderful faith, her strict observance of the "Word of Wisdom" of her church, and careful observance of simple rules of health, have preserved her life to a good age, with fair health and retention of her faculties to a marked degree.
The Golden Wedding Anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner was celebrated in Snowflake in 1933 with an excellent program composed throughout by the sons and daughters. Two special features of this program were a duet sung by Mr. and Mrs. Kartchner with guitar accompaniment, and a guitar duet which they had played together at the time of their marriage. Both still played the guitar with remarkable beauty of touch, time, and melody.
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