James Carpenter, born in 1762, was among the second group of settlers to land in Cincinnati in 1788, and bought land in Blue Ash from John Cleves Symmes in 1789, paying about $1,000 for 640 acres. Carpenter died in 1791 or 1792 after helping to build the settlement at Columbia, near where Lunken Airport is currently located. He apparently never lived on the land he purchased, which was inherited by his daughter, Hannah Carpenter who married Isaac Hunt in 1808. 100 acres were sold to Richard Ayers and the rest were divided between Hannah, her sister Rachel, and her mother, Mary Craig. Mary remarried in 1793 to Judge Francis Dunlevy.
Isaac Hunt had settled on this property shortly after marrying Hannah in 1808 in Lebanon, Ohio. Isaac was eventually married 3 times. Hannah died shortly after having her 12th child. He then married Eliza Miller, who bore him two more children before dying, probably in childbirth. He then married Jane Pitman and they had eight children together. Due to limited access to medical care of any kind, only 12 of those children lived to maturity.
John Craig Hunt was born on February 25, 1818 in a cabin on the property where the house
now stands. He was the sixth child of twenty-two fathered by Isaac Hunt. He was named for his great-grandfather who had died shortly after coming to this country from Scotland in 1765.
In 1839 John married Eliza Bowen. They had seven children – Lillis (1841), Rachel (1842), infant son who died at birth, Miranda (1845), Margaret(1846), Hannah (1849), and Wilson
(1853). Several of John’s brothers and sisters had also married and were raising their families in the area. John acquired most of what was considered Isaac Hunt’s homestead farm around 1849. His brother, William Harrison Hunt, lived on an adjoining farm to the northwest of the homestead.
A survey done in the 1850s called the Hunts “gentleman farmers.” By what we can gather from family records and letters, they would take their produce by flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to sell to the southern markets where their goods commanded higher prices. In addition to their own crops, they also acted as agents for other farmers, especially selling pork — John had two uncles from the Lebanon, Ohio area who were involved in the pork-packing business.
John was apparently a pretty successful businessman based on the choice of materials he used in the construction of the house. The house seems to be built to “show off” and entertain. The exact date the house was built has been tricky to ascertain as no records exist concerning its construction. Family history says the house was built in 1861 to replace the original home on the property (possibly a log home). The Miami Purchase Association dated the house as early as 1845.
Thanks to the research done by Jim Fearing, who examined all the building hardware and construction techniques used, the date can be narrowed down to 1857 to 1861. The house was built in the Federal/Greek revival styles of architecture.
One of the most significant events that occurred in the house was in 1863 when 10-yearold
Wilson saw from an upstairs window a large group of Confederate soldiers coming through the fields. He immediately ran to tell his father, who supposedly responded that they could do nothing to stop the raiders from stealing the horses. A claim filed later for compensation stated that four horses had been taken with a value of $495.00.
John and his family did not get to enjoy the house for long due to several deaths in the following years. His daughter, Hannah, died in September, 1866 at the age of 16. Her sister, Rachel, a teacher in Montgomery, died in May, 1867. Their mother, Eliza, passed away in February, 1868. The following December John Craig died, after what was described in family letters as a long debilitating illness.
Upon the death of his father, Wilson, then just 15 years old, inherited the house and its 54 surrounding acres. The other two surviving children,Lillis (who married Thomas Long) and Margaret (who married John Crugar) each received 53 acres. It’s believed that after his father’s death, Wilson lived with the Johnston family until he was of age to run the farm
In 1874 Wilson married Ida Bell Johnston, daughter of Archibald and Mary McMeen Johnston. Besides farming, Wilson was an early land speculator and developer in the Blue Ash area, and was instrumental in the development of the Arcadia subdivision in the 1890s. Eventually he bought back parts of the original property that his sisters owned.
Wilson and Ida Bell had four children: Harry Russell Hunt (1876), Mabel Lee Hunt (1787),
Howard Wilson Hunt (1885), and Wilber Morton Hunt (1888).
The Hunts were very involved in local activities such as the Blue Ash Band, and were founding members of the Blue Ash Presbyterian Church.
In 1908 Wilber Hunt graduated in the first co-op class of the Ohio Mechanics Institute (now
part of U.C. Engineering School). In 1912 he married Helen Hoshour from Milton, Indiana. They leased an adjoining farm (where Ravenwood is now located). In 1918 Elizabeth Hunt was born. Wilber bought the homestead from his father in 1926 for $2,100.
Elizabeth grew up in this house and attended the old elementary school at the corner of Cooper and Kenwood Roads. She graduated from Sycamore High School (where the Junior High is currently located) in 1936. While attending Hanover College in Indiana she met George Bell, and they married in the front room of the house on December 21, 1940.
In the ensuing years, as Blue Ash and the other surrounding communities grew, the farm was sold in bits and pieces. In an article that was published in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Wilber Hunt stated “the land became too expensive to farm”. After Wilber’s death in 1972, Elizabeth and George began a concerted effort to restore and preserve the house because it was beginning to show its age. The roof was replaced and the family spent countless hours scraping layer after layer of old wallpaper, and George became very good at wallpapering.
The Hunt House was always an extremely important part of this family’s life, where family members felt “at home” even when they lived far away.
The City of Blue Ash purchased the home in 2003 and began the process of restoring the
home to its original appearance. Many furnishings are original to the house; others have been donated. The house is maintained by the City of Blue Ash and is the home of the Blue Ash Historical Society and Museum.