Talk:Sophronia Smith Hunt

More potential sources
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Grand'mere Eugene (talk • contribs) 18:40, 22 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Women Soldiers of the Civil War, Part 3
 * Siouxland woman who fought in Civil War receives headstone
 * Dakota County Pioneer Dies
 * Series details work of women in military
 * Service (continued)
 * Funeral notice, Sophronia Hunt

Fact checking newspaper sources at time of death
Most (but not all) of the newspaper clippings around the time of death give her name as "Satronia". The funeral notice from her hometown, written presumably at the request of her one surviving daughter, gives her name as "Sophronia". Two contemporary historians ("Shelby Harriel" and Shirley Sides) both also cite her name as "Sophronia". This discrepancy puzzled me, so I searched the US Census and Iowa Census data on ancestry.com as well as marriage records on familysearch.com to try to verify the facts from newspapers at the time of her death, as well as facts provided by the two historians. All of those official records are closer to "Sophronia" than "Satronia". Variations include "Sophrona" and "Sophroney". The census records are also consistent on her age, which in every document translates to a birth year 1846, and the 1900 US census shows her birth as October 1846. Then I searched newspapers.com for "Satronia" (first name only) and one of the first hits was actually spelled "Safronia"— but the font of that newspaper made discriminating between the letters f and t a very close call, which the search engine read as a "t". Given that most of the news articles from 1928 mention talking to neighbors (who thought Hunt was probably 95 years old, who also described her reclusive behaviors) the "Satronia" spelling was probably a mistake generated from misreading "Safronia". Once her name was listed as "Satronia", it was likely propagated by other stories in other papers. Of course, I cannot prove it.

Should we move the article to "Sophronia Smith Hunt"? Grand&#39;mere Eugene (talk) 19:35, 26 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Yes, we should move it. Should "Allen" be included or leave it as ? I'm guessing not. Thank you for "clipping" the articles. While I generally can read "OCR", it helps others. I was wondering where that 95 age came from and they did explain people thought she was 10 years older, probably from a tough life. Sounds like Covington was a rough "border town" for a while, but eventually merged into South Sioux City, NE. There is a church now at her old address. Wonder if she had hearing loss in addition to literacy issues, making it difficult interacting? StrayBolt (talk) 19:02, 27 May 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅ Grand&#39;mere Eugene (talk) 00:45, 31 May 2021 (UTC)