Background
He was born on July 27, 1810 in Watertown, Massachussets. He was the son of Dr. Walter and Susanna (Cooke) Hunnewell. He was descended from Ambrose Hunnewell who emigrated from Devonshire, England, and settled in Maine about 1660.
banker horticulturist philanthropist
He was born on July 27, 1810 in Watertown, Massachussets. He was the son of Dr. Walter and Susanna (Cooke) Hunnewell. He was descended from Ambrose Hunnewell who emigrated from Devonshire, England, and settled in Maine about 1660.
His early education he gained in the schools of Watertown, but at the age of fifteen he abandoned formal training for a business opportunity of somewhat unusual character.
Samuel Welles, of Natick, Massachussets, a kinsman, had a number of years before established a Paris banking house, and to this young Hunnewell was invited to come. Here after ten years' sojourn, during which time Welles & Company had become one of the best known of American houses in Paris, he became a partner in the business.
In 1837 Welles & Company were so badly crippled by the panic of 1837 that the Paris house was closed, and Hunnewell returned to Massachusetts, with no money and great uncertainty as to his future work. His first years at home were spent in settling the affairs of the Paris business; he then looked about for inviting business opportunities. New England capital was at the time being directed to western railroad building, and to this Hunnewell turned his energies, becoming interested in a large number of railroads, both in New England and the Middle West. He served at one time and another as president of three roads, all centering in Kansas City, and was on the boards of directors of nearly two score more, among which were the Vermont Central, the Old Colony, the Illinois Central, and the Michigan Central. In addition he was one of the incorporators and a member of the board of directors of the Webster Bank of Boston, was vice-president of the Provident Institution for Savings from 1861 to 1902, and was director of many mining and industrial concerns. In 1860 he established the Boston business of H. H. Hunnewell & Sons, which for the next fifteen years specialized in foreign exchange.
Active and fruitful as was Hunnewell's financial career, his energies were by no means absorbed by it. In another field, remote from banking, his achievements were noteworthy. To the property in the present town of Wellesley, Massachussets, inherited by his wife from her father, he added a large acreage and there he not only made his summer home but also experimented with trees and shrubs which would grow in New England. His Italian garden, his many imported rhododendrons and azaleas, and a remarkable collection of coniferous trees gave evidence of his intense interest in horticulture. His efforts in this direction, however, were not limited to enriching his own estate. For forty years the Massachusetts Horticultural Society depended upon his intelligent interest and support; similarly the Arnold Arboretum owed much to him, and the botany departments of Harvard University and Wellesley College received generous benefactions from him.
He is known as one of the most prominent horticulturists in America in the nineteenth century. He was perhaps the first person to cultivate and popularize rhododendrons in the United States. To him the town of Wellesley, named in compliment to his wife's family, owes its public library and town hall as well as its park and playground.
Throughout his life Hunnewell was an active member of the Arlington Street Congregational Church of Boston.
On December 24, 1835, married a niece of Samuel Welles, Isabelle Pratt Welles, daughter of John Welles.
