Yolo-Alameda-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Hunt, Alvis G. 1857 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com December 7, 2005, 11:25 pm Author: Tom Gregory ALVIS G. HUNT The interests that engage the attention of Mr. Hunt are as important as they are varied, and include the ownership of business and residence property in Woodland, real estate in Oakland, San Francisco and Chicago, and a valuable fruit and alfalfa ranch on Cache creek near Yolo, which he leases. Participation in the financial affairs of Woodland comes through the ownership of shares of stock in the First National Bank, also the Bank of Woodland, both of which prosperous institutions have received the encouragement of his steadfast support and wise co-operation. For many years he owned a grain ranch near Wildflower, Fresno county, but this property was operated by tenants, his own time being given to the grain and warehouse business. In the days before the railroad was extended the wheat was hauled in Woodland in large "prairie schooners" from all parts of the county, purchased by him and shipped to Port Costa, Contra Costa county, from which point it was sent all over the world. Those were the years of enormous crops of wheat and barley and the shipments exceeded anything possible in more recent times, when the great ranches have been divided up into small farms and devoted to intensive agriculture. The Hunt family is of southern lineage and English extraction. Asa and Diana (Stanley) Hunt (the latter a Quaker by birth) reared eight daughters and two sons, of whom the youngest, William Gaston Hunt, was born in Guilford county, N. C., February 12, 1827. About 1843 the family removed from North Carolina, where the father had engaged in the milling business and also conducted a cotton gin, to Andrew county, Mo., where he took up government land. During 1846 the mother passed away and in 1848 the father was taken from the family by death. The children decided to join an expedition to California and May 1, 1849, left their old Missouri home with a train of five wagons. Three payments had been made upon the home farm, and, thinking they might wish to return, they left with the justice of the peace the money necessary for the fourth payment. Two months after their arrival in California they received a letter from Missouri stating that the justice of the peace was dead and that they had forfeited their right to their land through having failed to make the fourth payment. Thus was broken the last link that bound them to their old home, and they never returned to Missouri. Establishing a hotel at Hangtown, the two brothers left a sister to manage it while they engaged in freighting between Sacramento and the mines. As early as 1850 William Gaston Hunt began to buy live stock. During that year he bought a herd of cattle at Carson City, drove them over the mountains and turned them out to graze along the banks of Cache creek, on a ranch where he lived for some years. To that place he brought his sister in the spring of 1851. His only brother, Alvison, died in 1852. During the autumn of 1853 he married Miss Jennie Day, a native of South Bend, Ind., and a daughter of Dale Lot and Sybil (Russell) Day. From 1853 until 1863 Mr. Hunt engaged in raising sheep and had as many as fifteen thousand head in his flocks at one time. During 1863 he sent one drove to Oregon and another to Lower California, after which he engaged principally in general farming. Later he became interested in buying grain and in his warehouses at times he had as much as $300,000 worth of grain. In addition he served as president of the Yolo county winery. From 1875 until his removal to Oakland in 1897 he resided in Woodland on the corner of First and Oak avenues. During his identification with the town he helped to build the splendid city sewer system, aided in establishing the city water works, became a stockholder in the Bank of Woodland, and was a factor in practically every enterprise of that period projected for the material upbuilding of the place. With his wife he gave allegiance to the Society of Friends and loved the earnest doctrines of that peaceful sect, although he also was generous in contributions to other religious movements. From the organization of the Republican party until his death he adhered to the principles of the Republican party and his only son also has been a lifelong member of that organization. For some time after the demise of William Gaston Hunt, which occurred in 1899r his widow continued to make her home in Oakland, and there her death occurred April 27, 1911. She had come across the plains in 1850 with her father, two brothers and sister, and had settled in Sacramento, later removing to Stockton. Dale Lot Day, who was born near Morristown, N. J., in 1785, died in Nevada at the age of eighty-two years. He had been a pioneer builder in Stockton and had erected the first insane asylum in that locality. His wife, who died in South Bend, Ind., in young womanhood, was a daughter of Hezekiah Russell, a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The four brothers of Mrs. Hunt settled in the west: Russell died in Woodland in 1904; Lot died in Oakland; John died in Woodland, and Roland passed away in Nevada. Her two sisters, Delighta, Mrs. Charles Traver, and Mary, Mrs. Hopkins, both died in Sacramento in 1899 on the same day. After her removal to Oakland she united with the First Congregational Church and remained in its communion until her death. One of the most delightful experiences of the later years of Mr. and Mrs. Hunt was their tour around the world, which afforded them a merited recreation after years of ceaseless industry. It also gave them an appreciated opportunity of visiting points of interest in Great Britain and on the continent. Their family comprised two daughters and the son whose name introduces this article. The older daughter, Alice Edith, became the wife of L. D. Stephens of Woodland. The younger daughter, Rowena D., is the wife of E. J. DuPue, of San Francisco. The only son was born in Yolo county April 19, 1857, received his education in the University of California and a commercial college in Sacramento, and after graduating from the latter in 1875 engaged with his father in the grain and warehouse business, of which eventually he became sole proprietor. His attractive home at No. 548 First street, Woodland, is presided over graciously by his cultured wife, formerly Miss Alice Stump, of San Francisco, and has been brightened by the cheerful presence of two children, Irvin Gaston and Jennie. Mrs. Hunt is a daughter of Irvin C. Stump, a prominent pioneer of San Francisco and for years a leading politician of that city, but now a resident of New York. Additional Comments: Extracted from HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH Biographical Sketches OF The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY TOM GREGORY AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yolo/bios/hunt96bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 7.5 Kb