Isabella Cummings Hamill

Isabella Cummings Hunt was born 24 June 1844, in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania. But one cannot tell her story without first telling about her sister Sylvia. Sylvia Hunt met William John Hamill when he was a student in Jefferson College in Canonsburg. She was 3 years older than he was. When Sylvia married him, her sister Isabella was 7 years old.

The Hamills moved to Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Around 1860 Isabella is listed on the census in their home; apparently Sylvia had asked her parents to let Isabella come to work in Baltimore as a domestic to care for the children when Isabella was about 15. [The parents did not die until a number of years after Isabella ran off with William.]

Since Isabella was 12 years younger than Sylvia, as she grew to maturity, William John became infatuated with her, and she, more than likely, fell in love with him. He was under a lot of stress from the oil business and the burning of the oil refinery. This more than likely put a lot of pressure on his marriage to Sylvia.

At this time, William fathered a child with both his wife Sylvia and his sister-in-law Isabella. Disgraced, William secretly fled to Australia in 1864, taking Isabella with him. Sylvia divorced William, and he later married Isabella in Australia. They had at least 13 children (one report says 16), suggesting that they loved each other all their lives. They chose the same names that Sylvia did for some of her children – William, George, Elizabeth, etc. – suggesting that they missed the American children that Isabella had tended. They also named children patriotic American names, such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Millard Filmore. Isabella must have missed the United States terribly. When her husband died, she put American flags on his grave and told her children that she loved him all of her life. She had made her choice and never saw her American family again.

Isabella kept a private trunk, which apparently contained her remembrances of the United States, probably photos of her parents and family. It was so sacred that her family burned it without opening it after her death. Isabella apparently spoke well of her sister Sylvia because Isabella has many, many descendants with the name Sylvia.

It was a sad occurrence in the family, but Sylvia went on to become a business woman in the oil field in Baltimore, MD, long before other women would have done such work. She listed herself as a widow. Sylvia was a strong woman who found the means to care for her children. But her youngest son was ashamned of his father, whom he never met, and he changed his name from Hamill to Hunt.

Both Sylvia and Isabella lived to be 92, while their husband William John Hamill died at age 65. Isabella died 11 September 1897 at Glebe, New South Wales, Australia, and was buried at Waverly Cemetery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Her American family members thought that she had died in America, and apparently they were never aware that she and John had run off together to Australia. It was only through the miracle of computers that this family has reconnected and renewed its association. It is a sad tale, but nonetheless, there are many strong descendants from both of these unions, and for Isabella, it is a story of a choice she made when her love for William was stronger than her family ties. By Sylvia Hott Sonneborn, who was named for her grandfather's favorite aunt - Sylvia Hunt