Background
He was born in Hopewell, N. J. , 1783, the son of John P. and Margaret (Guild) Hunt, and a descendant of John Hunt who settled in that village soon after 1700.
(W. Price Hunt was an early pioneer of the Oregon Country ...)
W. Price Hunt was an early pioneer of the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest. An American and an employee of John Jacob Astor, Hunt used information supplied by the Lewis and Clark Expedition to lead the portion of the Astor Expedition that traveled to Oregon by land. The party reached the mouth of the Columbia River in February of 1812, joining the portion of the expedition that had traveled by sea at Fort Astoria, which the latter party had just completed. Hunt's expedition is one of the many scenes depicted on the Astoria Column and his name is inscribed in a frieze in the Oregon State Senate chamber of the State capitol. Rear endpapers carry a map of his journey. Includes other maps and illustrations.
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He was born in Hopewell, N. J. , 1783, the son of John P. and Margaret (Guild) Hunt, and a descendant of John Hunt who settled in that village soon after 1700.
He moved to St. Louis in 1804, and on December 18 was chosen a member of the village's first grand jury. With John Hankinson as partner he conducted a general store until June 10, 1809. He had then doubtless already engaged himself to Astor, for he soon afterward left for New York. Early in 1810, as a partner of the Pacific Fur Company, he arrived in Montreal, and with another partner, Donald McKenzie, began to organize the expedition. Passing through St. Louis in September, he established a winter camp near the present St. Joseph. On April 21, 1811, with Hunt as sole commander, the party started up the river. At the Arikara villages Hunt abandoned the river route, and with his company partly mounted struck out westward. On reaching the Snake he made the blunder of loosing his horses and attempting to navigate the river. Baffled by the turbulent stream, the company broke up into several groups, which after experiencing extreme privations straggled into Astoria during the fore part of 1812. On August 4 of that year, to negotiate and trade with the Russian-American Company, Hunt sailed in the Beaver for New Archangel, Alaska, where he delivered his cargo of goods to A. A. Baranov, receiving in return a load of sealskins. From New Archangel the Beaver sailed for Canton by way of the Sandwich Islands, where Hunt left the ship. Learning of the declaration of war with Great Britain he chartered the Albatross and returned to Astoria, more than a year after his departure, to find that his partners had already arranged to sell the post to the North West Company. Though protesting against the act, he did not remain to oppose its consummation, but again sailed for the Sandwich Islands, not returning until nearly two months after the capture of the fort by a British gunboat. On April 3, 1814, he left the Columbia for the last time. He returned to St. Louis, resumed business, and became prosperous.
About 1819, aided by Astor, he bought a large tract of land eight miles southwest of the city, where he established a farm and erected a gristmill. In the spring of 1820 he was an unsuccessful candidate for delegate to the constitutional convention. In September 1822 he was appointed postmaster of St. Louis, a place he retained for eighteen years. Though a leading citizen of St. Louis and held in high esteem by those who knew him, he was not popular, and his defeat in the election of 1820, when his party won a signal victory, was humiliating. His conduct of his own business appears in strong contrast with his management of the Astoria enterprise. Chittenden, who says he was not the man for the place, credits him with loyalty to his chief, but with "not much else. " On the journey he made a series of irreparable blunders, and as chief factor of the trading post he seems to have played directly into the hands of Astor's enemies.
(W. Price Hunt was an early pioneer of the Oregon Country ...)
He was married, April 20, 1836, to Anne (Lucas) Hunt, widow of his cousin Theodore.
