Abijah Hunt

Abijah Hunt
Born 1762
New Jersey
Died 1811
Occupation Merchant, planter, banker
Political party
 Federalist
Relatives Jeremiah Hunt (brother)
Jess Hunt (brother)
John Wesley Hunt (cousin)
David Hunt (nephew)

Abijah Hunt (1762-1811) was an American merchant, planter and banker in the Antebellum South.

Biography

Early life

Abijah Hunt was born in 1762 in New Jersey.[1][2] He had two brothers, Jeremiah Hunt and Jess Hunt.[1]

Career

Hunt moved from New Jersey to Cincinnati, Ohio to work as a merchant who supplied the United States Army soldiers stationed at Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio).[3] He worked with his two brothers, buying goods on credit in Philadelphia and New York City.[1][3] Wagoners hauled the goods to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where they were loaded onto flatboats and floated down the Ohio River to be sold in Cincinnati.[1][3] In 1795 Abijah helped his cousin, John Wesley Hunt, set up a similar merchant business in nearby Lexington, Kentucky.[3] John and Abijah obtained some of their goods by trading with each other. John would send Abijah "bacon, butter, cheese, salt, tobacco, whiskey, and horses" from Lexington, Kentucky, while Abijah Hunt would send John "leather, shoes, and nails" from Cincinnati.[3][4] Abijah made a small fortune providing supplies to the soldiers in Cincinnati.[5]

In 1798, Hunt moved to the Natchez District.[1] He lived in Greenville (now extinct) in Jefferson County, Mississippi.[5] With Elijah Smith, he opened general stores and public cotton gins in Natchez, Washington, Greenville, Port Gibson, Big Black, and Bayou Pierre.[1][2] He charged a ten percent commission to planters for processing their cotton at his public cotton gins.[1] In addition to operating a cotton brokerage, the Hunt and Smith firm did everything from selling ladies white hats and women's shoes to hauling logs and cotton bales.[2] Hunt became a cotton planter in Adams County, Mississippi, Jefferson County and Claiborne County.[1][2] Thus, he made money in every area of the cotton business - growing it on his plantations, ginning it at his public cotton gins, and selling it through his brokerage.[1]

By 1805, Abijah was the largest merchant in Mississippi.[6] He hired his nephew, David Hunt, to work in one of his stores.[6]

Politically, he was a Federalist.[1][2][6] In 1799, he was appointed Deputy Postmaster of the Mississippi Territory.[1] In this capacity, he made sure that all mail from Natchez would reach Nashville, Tennessee.[1]

Abijah bought and sold real estate. In 1807, Winthrop Sargent bought Bellevue Plantation in Adams County, Mississippi from Abijah Hunt and renamed it Gloucester (Natchez, Mississippi).[7] In 1808, Abijah sold a plantation on the Bayou Pierre in Claiborne County, Mississippi complete with 60 or 61 slaves.[8]

In 1809, he was a co-founder of the Bank of Mississippi.[1]

After Abijah's 1811 death, the inventory of his estate listed his 60 slaves by name.[9]


Death

He died in 1811 during a duel with Democratic Republican opponent George Poindexter, who later served as Governor of Mississippi.[1][2][6] His nephew, David Hunt, inherited his land and businesses, though he sold the stores to buy more land.[2][6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 A Guide to the Abijah Hunt Papers, 1800-1821, 1880, The University of Texas at Austin: Briscoe Center for American History
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 D. Clayton James, Antebellum Natchez, Louisiana State University Press, 1993, p. 157
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Karl Raitz, Nancy O'Malley, Kentucky's Frontier Highway: Historical Landscapes Along the Maysville Road, Louisville, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2012, p. 120
  4. ↑ John Dean Wright, Lexington: Heart of the Bluegrass, Louisville, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1982, p. 23
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Encyclopedia of Mississippi History (Volume one of two volumes ed.). Madison, Wisconsin: Southern Historical Press. p. 908.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Gary D. Joiner, Cheryl H. White, Historic Haunts of Shreveport, The History Press, 2010, pp. 73-74
  7. ↑ "United States Department of the Interior, National Parks Services, National Register OF Historic Places, Inventory Nomination Form". nps.gov. National Park Services. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  8. ↑ Libby, David J. (2004). Slavery and Frontier Mississippi, 1720-1835. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 52. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  9. ↑ "Mississippi Probate Records, 1781-1930". Family Search. Adams County Probate packets 1802-1829, box 20-21, images 1545-1553. Retrieved 17 September 2014.