Rebecca Shunk (maiden name: Black) was born on March 7, 1837, in Somerset, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Jeremiah Black, who served as attorney general to President James Buchanan. While living in Washington, D.C., she married her father's secretary, James Findlay Shunk, on March 10, 1858. Together they had one daughter: Jane Findlay Shunk, born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on New Year's Eve, 1859.
She and her husband "regretted and disapproved secession," viewing it as "unwise and mistaken." As conservative Democrats, however, they "felt our position to be more unfortunate than any other, as we could act on neither one side or the other, and were condemned and misunderstood all around." We added, however, that "we had plenty of company. York is a splendid copperhead region."
Her husband died on January 20, 1874, and she married Isham Henderson Hornsby on June 20, 1878. Her second husband died on August 19, 1899. Rebecca died in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 1910.
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| Name: | Shunk, Rebecca | |||||||||
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| Gender: | F | |||||||||
| Race: | White | |||||||||
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| Birth date: | 1837-03-07 | |||||||||
| Birth date certainty: | Certain | |||||||||
| Birth place: | Somerset, PA | |||||||||
| Death date: | 1910-04-15 | |||||||||
| Death place: | Washington, DC | |||||||||
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United States Federal Census, 1860, 1870, 1880; "James F Shunk," District of Columbia, Marriage Records, 1810-1953; "Jane Findlay Shunk," District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921; Washington, D.C., Wills and Probate Records, 1737-1952 for Rebekah Black Hornsby; Maine, Death Records, 1761-1922 for Isham Henderson Hornsby, accessed through Ancestry.com; The York Daily (York, Pennsylvania), June 22, 1878; Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg: J.M. Runk & Company,1896); "Rebecca Black Hornsby," FindAGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38367823); Rebekah B. Shunk to Mary Cobb, 6 November 1866, "Howell Cobb Papers," ed. R. P. Brooks, The Georgia Historical Quarterly, December 1, 1922
