Background
Leigh Smith James Hunt was born on a farm near Columbia City, Indiana, in August 1855.
Leigh Smith James Hunt was born on a farm near Columbia City, Indiana, in August 1855.
Hunt earned an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College via correspondence course and studied law on his own before passing the Indiana bar examination
He is best known as the third president of Iowa State University (1885-1886), and as publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1886 to 1893. The community of Hunts Point, Washington bears his name. Early life and education After completing his education in 1879 he went to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and engaged in teaching school, subsequently becoming Principal.
There he established his reputation as an educator, and some time later he was engaged as Superintendent of the Schools at Mount Pleasant, Iowa (1880) and Des Moines, Iowa (1882) and still later as President of the State Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa (now the Iowa State University).
In 1886 he went to Seattle and purchased the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which he owned and published until 1893. His later career included real estate development, operating a gold mine in of Korea, growing cotton in Sudan (1904-1910), and mining and land development in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Huntridge neighborhood in Las Vegas was developed on land that was his farm.