George Hunt

HUNT WILLIAMSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/22/2010 at 17:46:01

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

George Hunt
By J Darrell Hunt

George Hunt’s father, John Hunt, Sr, was born June 6, 1838, in Derbyshire, England. He came to the United States and to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1856, where he worked as a boiler maker.

George’s mother, Elizabeth Williamson, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Williamson, was born in Derbyshire, England, April 22, 1843, and migrated to the United States with her parents, in about 1851. They settled in Philadelphia. She married John Hunt, Sr, February 23, 1860.

As jobs were scarce in the east, they came to the Sioux City area on the train as far as Luton, Iowa, which was the end of the railroad at that time. They settled on a farm in the area known as Camp Creek in Grange Township. His original farm consisted of 120 acres, purchased for $3.25 an acre from the Iowa Falls & Cedar Rapids R.R. Company. He remained on the same farm for forty-three productive years until his death in 1912.

Shortly after he settled on the farm, he built a Baptist Church. He paid for the lumber himself and hauled it in a lumber wagon to his farm where the church was built. He also paid for one-half of the Church.

John, Sr, ran a small diary on their farm where they made butter and cream. Each week for many years they hauled their dairy products of Sioux City in a horse and buggy, a distance of fifteen miles, in order to help out with the groceries and other necessities.

Their home was known as the ‘Half Way House’ because it was located half way between Smithland, and Sioux City. Travelers from Smithland would stay at the Hunt home all night, then the next day they would continued on to Sioux City and back again, stay another night and on home the third day.

To this union were born four children: John, Jr, George A, Emila and Sarah Jane. The first house they lived in was a log cabin in which all four children were born. Later a larger home was built consisting of five rooms and still later, four more rooms were added when George married.

Elizabeth passed away in 1926 and is buried beside her husband in the Climbing Hill Cemetery. John Hunt, Jr, 1871-1936,married Mary Van Auken. They had two children, Emila, 1872-1890. Sarah Jane, 1880-1971, married Frank J Williams. To this union were born seven children.

George Hunt, 1878-1943, lived his entire life on the same farm in the Camp Creek community. He was very active in the community affairs, serving twenty-seven years on the school board, eleven years of which were spent on the board for the school that was located on his farm. In 1918 he helped to organize the Bronson consolidated school, serving on the board there for fifteen years, retiring because of poor health in 1933. He was a long time member of the Bronson Presbyterian Church and belong the IOOF lodge in Bronson.

George and his father built the second silo in Woodbury County in 1893, the year of the big drought. This was an upright silo built entirely of wood 24 feet high and 20 feet in diameter. It was in use until 1940. At that time they didn’t have a corn binder to the corn was cut in the field by hand and hauled to the silo. There it was cut by a cutter operated by tread power as that was the only means of power in those days. They also used tread power to operate the cram separator and for making butter. Their dairy barn stood until 1928 when it was demolished by a tornado.

On June 24, 1900, George married Kathryn Inez Sloan Drake, 1878-1946. To this union were born four children. Edna Marie, born August 20, 1901, married LeGrand Jorgenson in 1923 and moved to California in 19December 24. She passed away in December, 1950.

Amanda Elizabeth, born December 18, 1903, married Roy Link June, in 1926. They lived in Cedar Rapids, where Roy was in the farm machinery business. To this union were born a daughter and a son. Elizabeth still resides in Cedar Rapids. Roy passed away in October 1970.

Lucy Constance was born April 18, 1907. She married Paul Robinson in December 1929. They moved to Reinbeck where Paul was in the seed and electrical appliance business. They have a son and a daughter. Paul passed away in April, 1972. Constance still resides in Reinbeck and is a retired school teacher.

J Darrel Hunt was born June 7, 1909, and in October, 1934, he married Louise Lebeck of Sioux City. To this union were born two children, a daughter, Marlene Louise and a son, Gerald LeGrande. Marlene was born February 5, 1936, and married John Gifford Downs, April 20, 1958. They have three children, two daughters and a son. They live in Sioux City.

Gerald Hunt was born April 21, 1943, and married Patsy Ann Hagen of Climbing Hill, Iowa, March, 1964. They have three children, two sons and a daughter. They reside in Lewisville, Texas.

Darrell and Louise lived on the farm where he was born until 1962 when they retired from farm life and moved to Sioux City. There he was in the feed business until retirement in 1974. They lived in town for four years but didn’t care for city life, so they bought a piece of property two miles out of town on old Hwy 141 and built a new house in 1966 where they now live. They spend the winter months in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

He sold the original Hunt farm in 1962 to Ralph Waddell who now resides there.