The daughter was educated in part
at Ipswich (Mass.) Female Seminary, and in part at the school of the
Rev. J.S.C. Abbott in New York city. She was married to Captain
(afterward Major) Edward B. Hunt, an eminent engineer officer of the
United States Army. Major Hunt was a man of scientific attainments quite
unusual in his profession, was a member of various learned societies,
and for some time an assistant professor at West Point. He contributed
to one of the early volumes of the _Atlantic Monthly_ (xii, 794) a
paper on "Military Bridges." His wife resided with him at various
military stations--West Point, Washington, Newport, R.I., etc.--and they
had several children, all of whom died very young except one boy,
Rennie, who lived to the age of eight or ten, showing extraordinary
promise. His death and that of Major Hunt--who was killed in 1863 by the
discharge of suffocating vapors from a submarine battery of his own
invention--left Mrs. Hunt alone in the world, and she removed her
residence a year or two after to Newport, R.I., where the second period
of her life began.
Up to this time she had given absolutely no signs of literary talent.
She had been absorbed in her duties as wife and mother, and had been
fond of society, in which she was always welcome because of her
vivacity, wit, and ready sympathy.
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