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Show Hunter spends time doing genealogy 92-year-old lady stays busy with tatting By JAMS CARTER Clipper Correspondent It is difficult to imagine life before all these changes that have taken place in the past century. But 92-year-old Winn if red Hunter does not have to imagineshe has been here to witness the world's transformation from horse-drawn carriages to horseless carriages and from messenger boys to facsimile machines among many other developments. de-velopments. Hunter moved to Utah in 1953 when she took some missionaries' advice to leave her long-time home Oof Ontario, Canada. She had become quite interested in genealogy and moving to Utah allowed her to be closer to the ge- Onealogical library. Now 92 years old, Hunter is in-' volved in genealogical work and tattingthe delicate handmade lace formed by looping and knotting a single cotton thread with a small shuttle. Blind in one eye and losing sight in the other, the tatting she has been doing since she was 15 years old has become limited. But her memories are still alive. In 1899, when Hunter was born, life was a lot slower-people traveled travel-ed either on foot or by horse and buggy or sleigh. A wood stove and coal stove heated the house the Hunter family rented for $25 per year. When mail was finally delivered from house to house, the postman, if necessary, would also deliver bread and medicine to the homes. When Hunter was a small child, she lived across the river from the school house. In order to get to school. Hunter had to cross the river by boat in the summer and by sleigh or foot in the winter. In order to avoid problems with the crossing. Hunter's grandfather donated land for a school on their side of the river. While most of us only sing about "Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh...," Hunter actually did it. Her grandson's favorite story about his grandmother grand-mother took place when she was about 14 years old. Winnie wanted a Christmas tree, and a nearby farm that had once belonged to her grandfather had plenty of trees that she thought would be perfect. When she asked, the new owner gave her permission to choose a tree any time. One day before Christmas, Hunter's father went for a load of coal about seven miles away and had to go past the old farm to get there. Unlike the coal runs of the past, Hunter asked her father to take her along and drop her at the farm to cut a tree while he went for the coal. "I am surprised my father actually actu-ally agreed to it," Hunter said, "but maybe it had to do with the fact that I was going to cut down the tree with a butcher knife, so he wasn't too worried I would hurt myself." It was a cold, mid-December day with enough snow on the ground to take a sleigh rather than a carriage. Hunter's father let her out by the field of trees and continued on to run his errand. Hunter quickly found the perfect tree and began sawing it with the butcher knife, but soon realized she wasn't making much headway. Hunter's cousins lived across the road from the old farm and the sturdy stur-dy tree so she wandered over and asked her cousin, if he would cut the tree for her. He agreed and with a couple of whacks from his ax the tree was down. He carried the tree across the road and over the fence for Winnie and she set off across the field dragging the tree behind her toward her home. She had gone just a short way when a man carrying a gun over his shoulder approached her. "I wasn't frightened," Hunter said, "we weren't frightened by people back then. ' The man, a neighbor out hunting rabbits, told her to leave the tree and he would carry it home for her. r Later that evening there was a knock on the door. When they answered an-swered it, there was the Christmas tree out on the veranda with a rabbit hanging on top of it. Life was different but good in the early 1900s for Winnifred Hunter. It is good now, too, as she lives with her daughter Jeanne and spends time with her grandchild and her great-grandchildren. I t v - x I . ft- t - ' .... - . ; . t 4 r J l ) X N . K t . -t I ' . . V J Winnifred Hunter, 92, spends most of her time tatting, a delicate handmade lace formed by looping and knotting cotton threads with a small shuttle. She also has remained busy with her genealogical work. |
