Robert H. Hunt

Colonel Robert H. Hunt

Colonel Robert H. Hunt fought in the Civil War and later became Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.

Hunt was born in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1839. His parents emigrated to America in 1847, taking their children with them. At the age of eight Robert began to work as a waterboy on the railroad. At seventeen he entered Canandaigua Academy, Canandaigua, New York.

In 1859, Hunt headed west and ended up in Kansas City. Anti-slavery as he was, he lived on the Kansas side of the state line where he engaged in farming. That same year he married Miss Nellie Hoyne. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Hunt joined the Union Army as a private and served for four years and eight months moving up through the ranks and eventually ending his service as a Colonel.

During the war he was involved in many battles. Major Hunt directed the charge at the Battle of Mine Creek when Confederate General John S. Marmaduke was captured and Confederate General Sterling Price was defeated. Additionally, Major Hunt served as Chief of Artillery under General Samuel Curtis at the Battle of Westport and was wounded by "being hit in the head by a piece of an exploding Confederate shell." For his contributions during this battle, Major Hunt was breveted Lieutenant-Colonel.

In 1872, Colonel Hunt was elected the Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, serving one year. From 1874 to 1878, Colonel Hunt served on the Kansas City School Board. He died in 1908.

Footnotes

1. United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Missouri Volume. New York, NY, USA: United States Biographical Publishing, 1878, pp 20–21.
2. Paul Burrill Jenkins: The Battle of Westport, 1906, p 58.
3. Carrie Westlake Whitney: Kansas City, Missouri, Its History and People, 1808-1908. Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1908, p 200.