Hunt

Ethel Josephine Wise was born October 9, 1901, in Middle Creek Township, to Frank and
Nellie Wise.
She attended Beaver Creek Grade School, graduating with other rural graduates in a
county ceremony held in the Mallory Opera House. There was no school large enough to
handle the group. She has one of the programs in that spring 19I3 graduating group
showing herself and five others who had a part in the program.
She graduated with the l9l8 class of Paola High School, and her part in that program was a
talk on "Paola in the Fifties," which later appeared as a chapter in a book published in l92l
by T. H. Kinsella, L.L.D. entitled, The History of our Cradle Land.
Ethel worked in the draft office of World War I in the courthouse with four members of the
draft board until it was officially closed in April, 1919. Then, she was a stenographer in the
law offices of Charles T. Meuser, Paola, until her marriage to Dr. W. W. Hunt, April 29,
1922. One daughter was born to this marriage, Gerry. She is Mrs. John P. Gaughan,
Fairway, Kansas.
Mrs. Hunt was elected Clerk of the District Court of Miami County in November, 1940, an
office she held until retirement January 13, 1969. During that time and since, she has
served her community in various capacities. She was assistant to the Clerk of Selective
Service, registering men for World War II. For many years, she worked as a volunteer on
the reception desk committee at our local hospital, served as secretary for five years to the
Hospital Auxiliary.
She compiled the scrapbook of early activities for the opening of Lakemary Center, Inc.
Through the years, she has been an officer and ardent supporter of the Alumni of Paola
High School, keeping interest alive in class reunions for returning graduates. Her
great-grandfather, George Washington Wise, brought his wife and eight children from
Indiana to Middle Creek Township in September, 1859, in covered wagons. Five more
children were born. Mrs. Hunt's grandfather, William H. Wise, a Civil War veteran, was one
of those children.
It was through her association with him as a child, that she developed an interest in the past
and in her roots. She is a charter member of the Miami County Historical Society, serving as
a director and treasurer the first ten years.
She resigned to establish the library in the Swan River Museum where she has given many
hours helping school children and others in genealogy until she suffered a stroke while
working in the museum library October 23, 1985.
Since then, she has worked from her home records, no Ionger able to research newspaper
and courthouse records.
The board of the Paola Free Library gave her 43 years of Paola weekly newspapers, and
she spent three years clipping and cataloging. Also, she has typed tombstone inscriptions
in fifty Miami County cemeteries over a period of ten years.
When she is no longer able to use her home records, they will be given to Miami County
Historical Society library in the museum, so that others may search for their roots.