Yolo County
Biographies
WILLIAM GASTON HUNT
Although a number of years have
passed away since the removal from Woodland, and shortly afterward the death,
of William Gaston Hunt, he is still remembered and revered by the old pioneers
as one of the strong factors in the growth and development of the country, and
by the younger generation as a man whose example shall be for all time an
inspiration to work toward the higher and better things of life. A man of
unusual business ability, combining conservatism with the progressive spirit
which alone enabled men to succeed in the trying days of early statehood;
endowed by inheritance as well as training with the principles of honor and
integrity characteristic of his dealings with all men, he easily assumed a place
of leadership among the citizens of Yolo county, and with the passing years
built up for himself a comfortable competency and a position accorded only to
men whose names shall stand forever as the pillars and groundwork of a western
commonwealth.
The family represented by William
Gaston Hunt was of southern blood, and his father, Asa
Hunt, the descendant of English ancestry. His mother, formerly Diana Stanley,
was of Quaker birth, in which faith she reared her large family of eight
daughters and two sons, of whom William Gaston Hunt was the youngest, his birth
occurring in Guilford county, N. C., February 12,
1827. The means of the family were rather limited and no large income was
derived from the father’s work in the milling business (both saw and woolen
mills) and the conduct of a cotton gin, and through the early death of his
parents, the mother in 1846 and the father two years later, William G. Hunt
found the greater part of the burden of his sister’s support upon his
shoulders. He had attended school but very little but with the sturdiness
characteristic of the pioneers of the early day profited by the experiences
which made up the warp and woof of his life, and acquired a knowledge which
meant more to him in the days to come than any book lore which might have been
his. At the time of his parents’ demise the family were
located in Andrew county, Mo., where they had removed in 1843 or ’44, the
father having taken up government land. Three payments had been made upon this
land, when, in 1849, at the time of the great gold excitement in the remote
lands of California, the Hunts decided to immigrate to the Pacific coast. After
making arrangements to cross the plains in a train of five wagons organized in
their home neighborhood, they left with the justice of the peace in the
vicinity money with which to make the further payment on their land, which they
desired to retain as they might wish to return to Missouri and in any event it
would give them back their payments by sale. They left their home in Missouri
on the 1st of May, 1849, and were four months en route to Hangtown,
Cal. Two months after their arrival there they received a letter from Missouri,
informing them the justice of the peace was dead and they had forfeited their
right to the land as the fourth payment had not been made. This probably
influenced their decision to remain permanently in California,
for certain it is they never returned to the middle west. Their first venture
was the establishment of a hotel in Hangtown, which the sister conducted, while
the two brothers engaged in freighting between Sacramento and the mines. With a
foresight which bespoke the latent business ability of the young man, Mr. Hunt
as early as 1850 began the buying of stock. Later in the same year he went to
Carson City, where he bought a band of cattle and drove them over the
mountains, turning them out to graze along the bank of Cache creek, which
property afterward became his home. Closing up the hotel in Hangtown in the
spring of 1851, he brought his sister to the ranch in Yolo county,
and from that time on for many years he engaged in general farming and the
raising of sheep and cattle. With him was interested his brother, Alvis Hunt, who, however, lived but one year after their
location on the ranch, his death occurring in 1852. In the fall of the
following year Mr. Hunt married and brought his bride to the home ranch, where
they spent many years happy and full of compensations, although the labor was
great and privations not a few, working together toward a competence and place
of honorable citizenship. Success crowned the efforts of Mr. Hunt and from 1853
to 1863 he gave much of his attention to the raising of sheep, having as many
as ten to fifteen thousand head at a time. In 1863 he sent a drove to Oregon
and another to Lower California, and from that time on he engaged principally
in general farming. The raising of wheat occupied considerable of his time and
attention as well as the purchase of this product, his warehouses in Woodland
and other pints throughout this section containing at times as much as $300,000
worth. In the early days it was necessary to risk something in order to make
noticeable gains, and the position which men of affairs occupied at that time
required steady nerves, practical ability and conservatism, the watchword of
the development and upbuilding of the Pacific coast. Mr. Hunt was fortunately
endowed with all of these characteristics, evidenced by the success which he
won among the citizens of Yolo county.
In addition to his general interests
throughout Yolo county, among other positions serving
as president of the Yolo County Winery, Mr. Hunt became prominently identified
with the affairs of Woodland, in which city he owned various business and
residence properties. At the corner of Fisk and Oak avenues he made his home
from about 1875 to 1897, during which time he assisted materially in the
building of the water works of the city as a member of the board of city
trustees; helped build the city sewers, the success of which movement he was largely
instrumental in bringing about; and in the Bank of Woodland was active as a
large stockholder. Every movement, whether of a philanthropic nature or tending
toward the municipal welfare, received his unqualified support, and although a
member of the Friends’ Church he gave liberally toward all denominations. His
removal to Oakland in 1897 caused widespread regret among his many personal
friends, as well as among all who were friends of progress and reform, for
Woodland and Yolo county, then lost a citizen whose value could never be
calculated. His death, two years later, at the age of seventy-two years, lost
to Oakland a man who had already become prominent in affairs, his association
with the Farmers Bank as a director proving of material benefit to that
institution. He was a man of many parts---universally esteemed for not only the
business ability which distinguished his career, but as well for the personal
characteristics which made of him a stanch friend, a progressive and
self-sacrificing citizen, a noble husband and loving father, and a man of
unswerving principles. As a Republican he sought to uphold the principles he
endorsed by casting his ballot for candidates of this party.
The widow of Mr. Hunt was formerly
Miss Jennie Day, a native of South Bend, Ind., whose family is well represented
in California. Her father, Dale Lot Day, was born near Morristown, N. J., in
1785. The only son in the family of his parents, in young manhood he followed
the westward trend of civilization and became a pioneer of Indiana. He remained
in that state until 1850, in which year he brought his family across the
plains, establishing them (two sons and two daughters) in Sacramento. Later he
removed to Stockton, where he followed his trade of contractor and builder, erecting
the first insane asylum of that city. His death occurred in Nevada at the
advanced age of eighty-two years. His wife, formerly Sybil Russell, had died in
South Bend, Ind., before their removal to the west. She was a member of a
distinguished family of New Jersey, her father, Hezekiah Russell, having served
as a patriot in the Revolutionary war. Of the Day family Russell Day became a
prominent farmer in Yolo county, his death occurring in the city of Woodland in
1904; Roland Day died in Nevada; Delighta became the
wife of Charles Traver and died in Sacramento in
1899; and Jennie became the wife of Mr. Hunt, whom she survives, now making her
home at No. 753 Eighth street, corner of Brush street, in Oakland. Of her three
children Alice Edith became the wife of L. D. Stephens, one of the most
prominent citizens of Woodland, Yolo county; Rowena D. married E. J. DuPue, of San Francisco; and Alvis
G., born in Yolo county, April 19,1859, was educated in the University of
California and a commercial college of Sacramento, graduating from the later
institution in 1875, when he engaged in the grain and warehouse business with
his father. Mrs. Hunt is a member of the First Congregational Church of
Oakland, in charge of Dr. Brown, and is prominent in the social life of the
city. About fifteen years ago she and her husband took a trip around the world,
visiting all the interesting points of Europe, as well as the other continents,
a well-deserved recreation after their years of effort toward a competence, and
in which they took much pleasure. Mrs. Hunt has many friends both in Oakland
and in her old home in Woodland, and is beloved by both old and young for her
many excellent qualities.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
449-451.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Yolo County
Biographies