Dr. Larkin Wesley Hunt

Burial record:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66898044/larkin-wesley-hunt

Dr. Larkin Wesley Hunt's mother Malissa Callaway Hunt died at the early age of 20. She left behind her 3 year old and 3 month old sons. Her husband Wesley Hunt started the trek east toward Illinois to consult with his family about finding someone to help him finish raising the boys. Wesley was never heard from again, and was thought to have drowned attempting to cross the Mississippi river, which ran along the eastern border.

Malissa's brother Dr. Lewis Howell Callaway ultimately raised the boys.

Larkin Wesley was initially engaged to marry his cousin Susan Jemima Barnes. Their mothers Malissa and Matricia were sisters, and great-granddaughters of the famous Daniel Boone. Larkin can be found on the 1860 census visiting Susan's family not long before she was murdered in October. The uncle Dr. Lewis Howell Callaway that trained Larkin, then took in Susan's brother Lewis Sanders Barnes to also train as a physician.

On July 18, 1876 Dr. Larkin Wesley Hunt married Bertha DeGuentz, the daughter of Alphonse? and Annie. They were French immigrants that had also settled in the area after having moved from New Orleans. (She took the boys back to France.)

Larkin died in Fulton, Arkansas, (ref: Arkansas Death Index) but was brought back home to Missouri to bury near his family in the Moody Cemetery. (One family genealogy reference mistakenly says Moody Cemetery was across the border into Arkansas. Not uncommon for rural people of the day not to know exact location of county lines.)

by Lila Cole

"Dr. Larkin Wesley Hunt was reared in the home of his uncle, Dr.Lewis Howell Callaway, near Rhineland,Missouri, and began the practice of medicine at Rhineland when he was 19 years old and continued in the practice of medicine and surgery until he was 90 years old.

He was born at Louisiana, Missouri, the son of Melissa Callaway and Wesley Hunt. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as a surgeon in the Confederate Army and served with Capt. Dave Craig of Callaway County, Missouri, under the command of Gen. John B. Clark. Dr. Hunt was in the Battle of Moore's Mill, Callaway County, Missouri, on August 28, 1862 and attended the wounded for four days and nights without sleep or rest.

On November 4, 1862, he was wounded and relieved of his duties by Gen.Clark. After having served the people of Rhineland for 35 years as physician and surgeon, he moved to West Plains, Missouri, to retire and to enjoy the companionship of his brother, James T. Hunt, a prominent harness and saddle maker and store owner in West Plains.

Dr. Hunt bought a farm near Moody, Arkansas, just across the border of Missouri, but he was not permitted to retire and continued to practice until he was 90 years old. He died at the age of 96 and was buried in the cemetery at Moody, Arkansas.(sic: Missouri)

--Mrs. Martha E. Harrell's account of her great uncle."

From Lillian Hays Oliver, Some Boone Descendants and Kindred of the St. Charles District, Page 185, Mary Dean Alsworth, Dean Publications.