Bedford County PA Archives Biographies.....Hunt, William J.    
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Judy Banja jbanja@msn.com May 2003


WILLIAM J. HUNT, proprietor of a finely improved farming 
property in the southern part of Bedford township, Bedford 
County, Pa., is among the best known and most respected 
citizens of this community.  He was born January 24, 1837, 
on the farm where he now resides.  His parents were Joseph 
and Maria (Radebaugh) Hunt.
  His paternal grandfather, Thomas Hunt, Esq., who was of 
English parentage, was the founder of the branch of the Hunt 
family now living in this county, and was a man of 
prominence in Bedford township, of which he was Justice of 
the Peace many years; also rendering efficient service in  
other official capacities. Joseph Hunt spent the greater 
part of his life engaged in agricultural pursuits on the 
farm which he partly cleared from the wilderness, and which 
is now owned and occupied by his son, William J. Hunt.  An 
industrious and hard- working man, of resolute and 
determined character, truly the architect of his own 
fortune, he wielded a good influence in the neighborhood in 
which he lived, and where his death occurred in December, 
1857.  He was a Republican in his political affiliations and 
a member of the Presbyterian church.  He married Maria 
Radebaugh, of Bedford County.  One of their children, a son 
named John T., died during the Civil War.  The following 
still survive: Samuel, of Colerain, Pa.; Mary A.; Arnold, of 
Harrison, Pa.; William J., the special subject of this 
sketch; David A., of Wisconsin; Mrs. Rebecca Brown, of Iowa; 
Emeline, wife of Eli Corle, of Colerain, Pa.; Louise, wife 
of Emanuel Ling, of Juniata, Pa.; and Harry C., of Colerain, 
Pa.
  John T. Hunt, Corporal, Company K, Fifty-fifth 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, was enrolled as a recruit 
for the Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania at Bedford, Pa., October 
21, 1862, and mustered into the United States service at 
Harrisburg, Pa., November 4, 1862.  Joining his regiment, 
then stationed at Beaufort, S.C., on December 25, 1862, he 
was assigned to Company K.  In April, 1864, the Fifty-fifth 
Pennsylvania, forming a part of the Tenth Corps, was 
transferred to Virginia.  He was present with his regiment 
in an action near Petersburg, Va., May 9, 1864, and 
subsequently was captured in a battle near Drury's Bluff, 
Va., May 16, 1864.  He was taken as prisoner to Libby 
Prison, thence to Andersonville, Ga., where he remained a 
greater part of the time of his captivity.  When General 
Sherman commenced his march through Georgia to the sea, he 
was removed with other Andersonville prisoners to Millen, 
Ga., and afterward to Savannah, Ga., where he died.  The 
exact date of his death is unknown, some comrades reporting 
it as having occurred on October 10, 1864, while others 
fixed upon a later date.
  William J. Hunt acquired his early education in the 
district schools of Bedford township, and has supplemented 
it by extensive reading.  Having succeeded to the ownership 
of the parental homestead, he has conducted general farming 
and stock-raising with good results from a financial point 
of view, and the justness of his reputation as a skilful and 
progressive farmer is amply borne out by the appearance of 
his homestead.  His one hundred and thirty acres of land are 
in a fair state of cultivation, and yield good crops.  
Religiously, he is a consistent member of the Presbyterian 
church, and, politically, he affiliates with the Republican 
party.
  Mr. Hunt and Catherine, daughter of the late Benjamin 
Vore, of Napier township, Pa., were married on December 2, 
1862.  They have four children, namely: Samuel H., a 
resident of Cleveland, Ohio; Benjamin F., a  physician in 
Bedford, Pa.; Annie E., and William E., at home.


Source: Bedford Biographical Review, 1899, Bedford Co., Pa