Harriet Earle Hunt

EARLE, HUNT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 12/11/2015 at 21:56:16

Northwestern Iowa
Its History and Traditions
1804 – 1926

Harriet Earle Hunt, founder of the Sioux City Stylus and one of Iowa’s first women editors and publishers, was born in Ohio on the 3d of April, 1840. She was the daughter of William Y. and Amelia Earle. Ralph Earle, her great-great-great-great-grandfather, came over from England in approximately the year 1634 and settled in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He took a prominent part in public affairs of that town, being a member of the town council and a representative of Portsmouth at all the out-of-town councils. He appears as a member of an important council of the New England states in 1645. His decease is surmised to have occurred about 1678.

His son, William Earle, was also a prominent citizen of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and died in 1715. William’s son, Ralph Earle, was born Portsmouth in 1660, but moved to Leicester, Massachusetts, where he died in 1757, bequeathing large tracts of land to his children. Ralph’s son, Robert Earle, was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, in 1706 and died in 1796. Fond of equestrianism, he rode until he had reached the age of eighty-nine, traveling at these advanced years from Leicester to Chester, Vermont, in one day. Robert’s son, George Earle, was born in 1735, and moved to Chester, Vermont, as a young man. He was captain of a company of Chester (Vermont) militia throughout the Revolutionary war, and his son, Frederick Earle, served throughout the Revolution as a private in his father’s company. A gun-smith, George Earle passed away in 1806, and his son in 1847 at Chester, Vermont. Then followed William Young Earle, son of Frederick Earle and the father of Harriet, soon after her birth her parents went in a covered wagon to Maquoketa, Iowa, via Chicago, which was then called Fort Dearborn. Her father was offered a large tract of land in what is now the heart of Chicago in exchange for his outfit, but the land looked so swampy and unattractive that Mrs. Earle refused to consider the offer, and drove on father west. He settled in Maquoketa and raised a family of thirteen children.

Harriet Earle received her education at the Maquoketa Academy and specialized in music. One of her instructors was the late Professor Mueller, who afterward was junior partner in the firm of Schmoller & Mueller at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

On October 8, 1864 Harriet Earle was united in marriage at De Witt, Iowa, to Gilbert Watson Hunt, a young newspaper man of Maquoketa, Iowa. Their eldest son, Charles E. Hunt, was born here on the 14th of August, 1865. A few years later the family moved to Monticello, Iowa, where Mr. Hunt became editor and proprietor of the Jones County Liberal, which afterwards became the Democrat. They made their home in Monticello, where their children, Harry and Kittie, twins, Louise Adella, George Lytton and Fred Ralph, were born. In the spring of 1880 they removed to Fonda, Iowa, where Mr. Hunt founded the Fonda Democrat. There was born a daughter, Susan, who died at the age of three months. The family next removed to Storm Lake, Iowa, where Mr. Hunt edited a democratic paper for a short time.

In 1883 the family located in Le Mars, Iowa, where Mr. Hunt edited the Daily Democrat, which later became a tri-weekly and next a weekly publication. This paper, now known as the Post, is still in existence at Le Mars. A son, Arthur Clarkson, was born there. In the spring of 1886 the family located in Sioux City, where Mr. Hunt started the Democrat, a weekly paper.

On May 11, 1889, Mrs. Harriet Earle Hunt launched a free lance in the newspaper field which she named the Sioux City Stylus. It was distributed free of charge for a year, with advertising the source of revenue. At the end of the first year a subscription was charged and the paper became a vehicle for legal publications, which it has remained ever since. Mrs. Hunt was not only a pioneer business women of Sioux City, but one of the first women editors and publishers in the state of Iowa. She possessed the same courage in blazing a trail in an untried field for women as her parents displayed in blazing a trail through to a new part of the country, with its many attendant dangers.

Mrs. Hunt continued the publication of the Stylus until March 19, 1906, when she passed away at the age of sixty-five. She had helped her sons to gain a college education and had educated her daughters in music. She maintained high ideals in her newspaper work, despite the fact that she often lost in a commercial way. At her death her daughter, Mrs. Kathryn Hunt James, took up her work and has maintained her mother’s ideals.

Mrs. James is the author of two books, “Wayside Glints,” which was published in 1898, and “Sparkling Shots,“ published in 1901, besides many other human interest narratives which she has published in the Stylus throughout many years and which have been widely quoted. The Sioux City Stylus recently celebrated its thirty-seventh anniversary. The editorial and business headquarters are situated on the sixth floor of the Woodbury County Courthouse, in connection with the Sioux City Law Library, of which Mrs. James is assistant librarian. Mrs. James is affiliated with the Sioux City Women’s Club, the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Sioux City Humane Society, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and several other organizations. She was recently appointed chairman of a censorship committee on literature by Mayor W. S. Gilman.

Charles E. Hunt, the oldest son, was united in marriage at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1890, to Miss Grace Barnes, who passed away in the spring of 1896. He was married to Miss Florence Reynolds, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1899. Two children were born of this union, Hayward and Louise. The family is living at Seattle, Washington, where Mr. Hunt is commercial editor of the Post-Intelligencer.

Harry H. Hunt, the second son, was united in marriage at Sioux City, Iowa, April 4, 1898, to Miss Aldea Delier of Sioux City. Two children, Charles Arthur and Harry Pierre, were born on October 19, 1899 and February 3, 1901, respectively. Harry H. Hunt passed away on the 8th of February, 1920.

Louise Adella Hunt passed away at Sioux City, Iowa, September 18, 1895, at the age of twenty-four.

Fred R. Hunt was united in marriage to Mrs. Zaidee Pease at Chicago in 1908. One son, Fred Hunt, was born to this union. Mr. Hunt is editor of the Chicago Leader at Chicago, Illinois.

Arthur Clarkson Hunt was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude Glaate of Buffalo, New York, in 1913. One daughter, Martha Jane Hunt, was born March 25, 1921. Mr. Hunt resides at 44 Rugby Road, Buffalo, New York.

George Lytton Hunt is unmarried and resides at Denver, Colorado, a printer by trade.