HUNT, WALTER S., JR.

HUNT, WAGNER, KILEY, ANDERSON

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/18/2004 at 08:47:01

Biography reproduced from page 612 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Walter S. Hunt, Jr., engages in general farming and stock-raising on section 20, Luverne township, where he owns a hundred and sixty acres of highly improved and fertile land. He was born in Livingston county, Illinois, September 11, 1876, and is a son of Walter S. and Sallie (Wagner) Hunt, the father a native of New York and the mother of Ohio, but they were among the pioneer settlers of Livingston county, as also were their parents. The father first lived in Kendall county, Illinois, but about two years after the war he located in Livingston county, and now makes his home in Oswego, Illinois, were he is living retired. He served in the Union army for four years, being a member of Company H, Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He went to the front as a private and was subsequently promoted and honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. His company participated in many of the notable conflicts of the war and he was wounded three times, once at the battle of Gettysburg. After the close of hostilities, Mr. Hunt resumed the duties of civil life as a farmer, continuing to follow that occupation during the remainder of his active life. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, as follows: Lulu and Edwin, both of whom are deceased; Walter S., Jr., our subject; and Celia, the wife of M. T. Kiley, of Emington, Illinois. The mother passed away in 1911, and is buried at Oswego, Illinois. She was a member of the Presbyterian church as is also the father, and they reared their family in the faith of that denomination.

The boyhood and youth of Walter S. Hunt, Jr., were as unvaried in their routine of work, school and play as those of the average lad reared on a farm at that period. He was educated in the common schools, and when still in his early boyhood was assigned light tasks about the fields and barns, his duties being increased as his strength and sense of responsibility developed with the passing years. At the age of twenty he left the parental roof and became self-supporting. He first found employment as a member of a construction crew on the railroad, but three months later he withdrew from this occupation and went back on the farm. A year later he went to Minnesota and spent the winter, and then returned to Illinois and remained there for two years. He subsequently came to Iowa, spending one year in Hancock county. From there he came to Kossuth county, first locating in the vicinity of Corwith, where he spent eleven years. He next removed to a farm a mile west of Luverne, for a year, at the end of which time he came to his present place, located on section 20. All of the buildings on his farm were erected by his father, who was the former owner, but our subject has fenced and tiled the fields during the period of his occupancy. At various times he has introduced other modern conveniences and appliances consistent with the spirit of progress he manifests in his work, and owns one of the highly equipped and valuable properties of the township.

In 1900, Mr. Hunt was married to Miss Matilda Anderson, who was born in Michigan, and they have become the parents of two sons, Walter S. and Howard Edwin.

Fraternally Mr. Hunt belongs to the Brotherhood of American Yeoman at Luverne, and while living in Illinois he was a member of the Good Templars. He votes the republican ticket and while he takes an active interest in all local affairs has never held any office save that of school director, in which capacity he served for a year. That Mr. Hunt leads a life of intense activity and enterprise is evidenced by the general appearance of his farm which evidences capable supervision and competent and systematic direction in its development.