Fredericksburg City-Caroline-Richmond City County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Hunt, Gilbert John 1843 - 
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Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 August 12, 2008, 8:27 pm

Author: Lyon G. Tyler LLD

HUNT, GILBERT JOHN, a prominent general contractor and builder, was born in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, February 17, 1843. His father, Gilbert J. Hunt, was 
noted as a designer of unusual artistic taste and a skilled and successful
mechanic, who was born in New York city in 1812, and coming South to Virginia in
1833, settled in Fredericksburg, where he married his wife, Jane Jones. Mr.
Hunt's great-grandfather was also Gilbert J. Hunt, of New York city, who was an
ardent patriot in the revolutionary struggle between the American colonies and
Great Britain, and was a writer of some local reputation. On his mother's side
Mr. Hunt is of Scotch extraction, being a descendant of a McDonald ancestor, who
was a gallant soldier of the Revolution, serving in the Continental army
throughout the war, and participating in the siege of Yorktown and the surrender
of Lord Cornwallis's army. This progenitor, after the close of the Revolutionary
war, settled in Caroline county, Virginia, and married a Miss Searle, also of
Scotch descent, of whose marriage was born one child, a daughter, Jennie
McDonald, who married Samuel Jones, of Fredericksburg, and was the maternal
grandmother of Mr. Hunt. 

Gilbert J. Hunt was one of eleven children. His health in youth was delicate,
and so his father, after sending him for a while to the common schools of
Fredericksburg, determined to put him to work at a trade that would tend to
improve his physical condition. To this judicious action of his father, Mr. Hunt
attributes not only the foundation of the sound health which he has since
enjoyed, but also that of the success which he has achieved in his life work of
master builder and contractor.

When the War between the States began in 1861, Mr. Hunt, although then only
eighteen years of age, had by diligence and attention to business already made
of himself an excellent mechanic. There followed upon the inception of
hostilities a natural demand on the part of the Confederate government for
skilled workmen in its several mechanical departments ; and Mr. Hunt was
accordingly detailed for service in the gun-carriage department of the artillery
workshops in the Confederate States arsenal, where he rendered valuable service
during a large part of the war.

Mr. Hunt has been from boyhood, a zealous and active member of the Methodist
Episcopal church, to which he has contributed both of his time and means. He
taught in its Sunday school for ten years, and was Sunday school superintendent
of his church for twenty years. He was for a yet longer period chairman of the
board of church stewards, and has filled every office in connection with his
church that could be held by a layman. 

Mr. Hunt is a man of great energy and initiative; and in the conduct of his
large and successful business as contractor and builder, he has relied upon his
own skill as a designer in making his own drawings, plans and specifications;
while at the same time he has kept his own books and accounts, and transacted
his large business without the intervention or aid of bookkeepers. 

Mr. Hunt is a Democrat in his political affiliations, and has never swerved in
his allegiance to his party.

On April 29, 1864, Mr. Hunt married Ella Griffith, and of their union seven
children have been born, of whom five (1906) survive. Two of his sons are
successful physicians, and another is an architect and builder associated in
business with his father.

Mr. Hunt's address is Richmond, Virginia.

Additional Comments:
from 
Men of Mark in Virginia, Vol. II, 1907.

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