John Hunt

Background

John Wesley Hunt was born in 1773.

Career

He was one of the first millionaires west of the Allegheny Mountains. Moving to Lexington in 1795, he became a merchant, horsebreeder, hemp manufacturer, and banker. In 1799, President John Adams named Hunt as postmaster of Lexington.

A horsebreeder, he introduced the Messenger strain to Kentucky in the winter of 1839-1840.

Personal life

Their son Charlton Hunt became the first mayor of Lexington. Death

He died in 1849.

He was buried in the family plot at the Lexington Cemetery. John Wesley Hunt"s grandson, John Hunt Morgan, was a famous Confederate general during the American Civil War of 1861-1865.

Achievements

• A great-grandson, Doctor Thomas Hunt Morgan, was the first Kentuckian to win a Nobel Prize.