Biography

Mentioned in 18460401WHS_SSS1 - "He is a man of handsome property with $10,000 clear of all debts"

Richard Pell Hunt was born September 2, 1797, the fifth child of Richard Hunt and Mary Pell Hunt. His parents were Quakers from Pelham, Westchester County, New York. When Hunt came to Waterloo in 1821, he became part of the knot of local Quaker families--most of them from New Jersey or southeastern Pennsylvania--affiliated with the Junius Monthly Meeting of Friends in Waterloo. He was related by blood or marriage to at least eight other signers, including his two sisters (Lydia Mount and Hannah Plant), a niece (Mary E. Mount Vail), and all four of the M'Clintock family signers.

Unlike most of these Quakers, however, he was also allied by economic and family ties with the small network of men responsible for the village's basic economic development. Not coincidentally, by mid-century, he was also the richest man in Waterloo. In 1850, he owned $40,000 worth of real estate. At his death six years later, according to the Dun and Bradstreet credit ratings, he was worth $100,000.

Some of Hunt's wealth included several farms. As a land speculator, he made forty-three land purchases in Waterloo and Seneca Falls between 1823 and his death in 1856. He also owned 960 acres in LaSalle County, Illinois. In fact, reflecting his own rural values, Hunt continued to call himself a farmer throughout his life.