CHARLES ALVIN HUNT

 

 

CHARLES ALVIN HUNT, proprietor of the City Hall Stables, Oakland, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, October 7, 1863, a son of Milan and Elizabeth (Jones) Hunt.  His father, a native of New York city, was reared in Ohio, where his parents settled on the farm in his childhood; was raised on a farm and for some time was a farmer on his own account.  About 1858 he started for California with his family, but, being detained at Omaha by the sickness of his children, he there embarked in the wholesale butchering business, with at least two partners.  In 1866 he changed to livery stable business, in which he remained until 1872.  Meanwhile he had sent his wife and two children to Oakland, in 1870, following with his eldest son in 1872, the chief motive for removal being the condition of Mrs. Hunt's health.  Arriving here, he continued keeping livery on Broadway until 1876, and then at the present location just west of the City Hall on Fourteenth street until his death, early in June, 1880, aged fifty-two.  Mrs. Hunt died March 13, 1875, aged forty-two.  Three only of their nine children were living at this time, namely: Harriet Alice, the wife of William A. Richards, Surveyor-General of Wyoming, residing at Cheyenne; George C., who continued the stable business for some years after his father's death, and is now engaged in mining near Phoenix, Arizona; and C. A., whose name heads this sketch.

 

Arriving here at the aged 7, Mr. Hunt was educated in the Irving Grammar School, giving, however, all his spare hours to the livery business from boyhood, being almost literally brought up among horses.  In the spring of 1884 he took a course in Heald’s Business College, and his first independent venture was in coal-oil trade in San Jose, in 1886, for about a year.  Returning to Oakland he entered into partnership with his brother, January 1, 1888, in the City Hall Stables, under the firm name of Hunt Bros., and continued until November, 1890, when he purchased his brother's interest, and has since carried on alone a boarding and livery stable, "at the old stand," with marked success.

 

February 21, 1887, he married, in Oakland, Miss Georgie Pierson, was born Oakland, December 7, 1868, a daughter of George and Caroline L. (Fairchild) Pierson, both residents of this coast since 1849.  Her father, whose chief pursuit has been mining, is still living, aged sixty-six years, and the mother died in 1888, aged fifty-six years.  Mr. and Mrs. Hunt have one child, George Alvin, born February 21, 1888; and Raymond Pierson, born June 9, 1891.

 

 

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco" (and Its Cities And Their Suburbs) Volume 1. Lewis Publishing 

Company 1892. Page 445-446.

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton.