Born in Gloucester, Providence county, Rhode Island, on the 17th of May, 1836. An ancestor. Captain Seth Hunt, a seafaring man, was one of the early settlers in the city of Providence. He lost his mother when he was only two years old, and went to live with his grandfather, an early Rhode Island cotton manufacturer, who carefully reared and educated him. At a suitable age he was placed in the Fruit Hill Classical Institute, in North Providence, where he remained until his seventeenth year, when he went into the counting room of an uncle, and spent three years clerking for him and other parties. Subsequently he was interested in the cotton business in Providence with the late S. Sterry Smith. When about twenty years of age Mr. Hunt, having a strong desire to see the great west and other parts of North America, started on a tour of observation and speculation, first visiting the central western states, then proceeding southward to Texas, then to old Mexico, Central America, California, Oregon and the British provinces, mining, trading, etc. During this time his father moved to Mills county, in the extreme southwestern part of Iowa, settling there about sixteen years ago, and in the autumn of 1866 the son returned from the Pacific slope, and after remaining one winter with his father the whole family removed to Pottawattamie county. They settled in the Nishnabotna valley, four miles southwest of where Avoca now stands, building a flouring-mill and engaging in milling and farming. About five years ago Mr. Hunt lost his health; sold out his interest in the mill and other property and traveled a year or two until his health was restored. On returning he made Avoca his home, and since 1875 has been operating in real estate, farming and stock-raising. In the autumn of 1875 Mr. Hunt was elected to the lower house of the general assembly, and served in the session of 1876, being on the committees on asylum for the deaf and dumb, county and township organizations, compensation of public offices, and for the suppression of intemperance. During that session he was influential in getting a bill for a new county, to be called Grimes, and to be taken from the eastern part of Pottawattamie, but the measure was defeated by a vote of the people. Mr. Hunt was reared a Whig, and since the dissolution of that party has acted with the democrats. He usually attends the state conventions of his party, and is one of its leaders in Pottawattamie county. He was a Master Mason. The wife of Mr. Hunt was Miss Harriet M. Mortimore, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana; they were married on the 14th of August, 1861.
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