Orrington Lunt was an American philanthropist, businessman, and public official. During his career he served on a number of professional boards and was involved in variety of business ventures.
Background
Orrington Lunt was born on December 24, 1815, at Bowdoinham, Maine, United States. He was the son of William Webb Lunt, for some time a member of the state legislature, and his wife, Ann Matilda Sumner. He was descended from Henry Lunt, who emigrated from England and settled at Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1635.
Career
Orrington Lunt entered his father's store in his fourteenth year, became a partner when he was twenty-one, and was made clerk and treasurer of the town at twenty-two. His reputation for stability and integrity was established at this early day.
In 1842 he moved to Chicago to seek a fortune. He engaged in business in a small way, but it was a time of financial depression and he found it difficult to get a start. In 1845 he began to buy wheat and in November he sold all the wheat he had accumulated in two storehouses and a large elevator. The transaction was so profitable that he was led to buy largely and rather recklessly, and in a year lost all he had made. He later said that he had learned two things by this experience: not to buy on speculation and not to go outside Chicago for his market; and he thought this wisdom had been cheaply bought. He soon reestablished himself, and thenceforth had a permanent standing in the business world.
Lunt was for two years vice-president of Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, and served as a director until the road was consolidated with the Chicago & Northwestern. In 1862, because his health was poor, he gave up active business life, and in 1865 he went abroad for two years with his family, traveling extensively in Europe and Asia.
He was a member of the Committee of Safety and Finance during the Civil War, secretary and treasurer of the board of trustees of Northwestern University and also of Garrett Biblical Institute for many years. Lunt and his friend and fellow trustee, John Evans, were appointed on a committee to choose a site for the projected Northwestern University, but it was Lunt alone who waded through the swamp which lay between the road and the lake shore and discovered the ridges and hardwood groves along the lake which marked the site of the present university campus. The trustees purchased 379 acres at seventy dollars an acre. The city of Evanston, which they wished to call Luntville or Orrington, but which was finally named after John Evans, grew up about the university; Lunt moved his residence to Evanston in 1874 and was a foremost citizen until the day of his death.
Achievements
Religion
Lunt was a devout Methodist. He had joined the Clark Street Church in Chicago as soon as he arrived in that city and he was identified with all the Methodist enterprises in the next generation.
Membership
Lunt was a trustee of the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association and a president of the Chicago Bible Society.
Personality
Lunt had a pleasing countenance and in his later years a patriarchal appearance, and he was always characterized by a beautiful and benign disposition. He had a singing voice in his youth which maintained its sweetness even in old age. A shrewd and honest business man, he was much sought for as treasurer of important funds.
Connections
On January 16, 1842, Lunt married Cornelia A. Gray, who became the mother of his four children.