Jonathan Hunt (Vermont congressman)

Born on August 12, 1787, in Vernon, in the Vermont Republic, Hunt graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1807.[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_F3oVAAAAYAAJ/page/n93 Art-Life of William Morris Hunt], Helen M. Knowlton, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Mass., 1899 Afterwards, Hunt studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1812. Hunt commenced practice in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1812.{{cite book|last=Chapman|first=George Thomas|title=Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College: From the First Graduation in 1771 to the Present Time, with a Brief History of the Institution|date=1867|publisher=Riverside Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sju7AAAAIAAJ/page/n135 133]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sju7AAAAIAAJ|quote=jonathan hunt dartmouth college.}} He was the first president of the Old Brattleboro Bank in 1821, the first bank established in Brattleboro, a position he held for years afterward.[https://archive.org/details/brattleborowind00burngoog/page/n18 Brattleboro, Windham County, Vermont, Henry Burnham, D. Leonard, Brattleboro, 1880] He also carried the rank of General in the Vermont militia, as had his uncle Arad Hunt.[https://books.google.com/books?id=zF90vZBrQ5oC&dq=jonathan+hunt+suffield&pg=PA289 Annals of Brattleboro, 1681-1895, Mary Rogers Cabot, E.L. Hildreth & Co., Brattleboro, Vt., 1921]

Hunt held many political positions in Vermont, and served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1811, 1816, 1817 and 1824.{{cite book|last=Middlebury College|title=Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont: And of Others who Have Received Degrees 1800-1915|date=1917|publisher=The College|page=xii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TapBAAAAYAAJ&q=jonathan+hunt++&pg=PR11}} He was elected as an Adams candidate to represent Vermont's 1st congressional district in 1827. He served in the United States House of Representatives during the Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Congresses, serving from March 4, 1827, until his death on May 15, 1832.{{cite book|last=Green|first=D.|title=The Political Register, Volume 6|date=1832|publisher=D. Green|page=286|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=waZYAAAAMAAJ&q=jonathan+hunt+Vermont+House+of+Representatives%5D&pg=PA286}}

Hunt was a lifelong friend of statesman and orator Daniel Webster.{{cite book|last=Vredenburgh Van Pel|first=John|title=Monograph of the William K Vanderbilt House|publisher=Lulu.com|page=4|isbn=9780615255378|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHdGAgAAQBAJ&q=jonathan+hunt+Daniel+Webster&pg=PA3}} The brick home that Hunt had built in Brattleboro, later known as the Colonel Hooker home,The Jonathan Hunt home was located at the corner of Main and High Streets in Brattleboro. was the first brick home built in town.[https://books.google.com/books?id=nS0TAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22jane+maria+leavitt%22&pg=PA47 Picturesque Brattleboro, Frank T. Pomeroy, Rudyard Kipling, Picturesque Publishing Company, Northampton, Mass., 1894]

Hunt died in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 1832, aged 44, while still in office.{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=Robert|title=Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, Volume 5|date=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=290|isbn=9780415216319|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9UbAQAAMAAJ&q=jonathan+hunt+married+Jane+Maria+Leavitt+vermont&pg=PA290}} At his death he left an estate valued in excess of $150,000. He was buried in the family plot in the Old Cemetery on the Hill in Brattleboro, Vermont.[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_F3oVAAAAYAAJ/page/n233 Art-life of William Morris Hunt], Helen M. Knowlton, Little Brown & Co., Cambridge, 1899

A graduate of Dartmouth, Hunt served as a trustee of Vermont's Middlebury College, where Hunt family membersCongressman Hunt's uncle, Gen. Arad Hunt, donated in 1813 over {{convert|5000|acre|km2}} of land at Albany, Vermont, to Middlebury College. The rents from these lands were an important source of income for the then-fledgling institution. had been early benefactors.[https://archive.org/details/catalogueoffice05collgoog Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, 1800-1915, Published by the College, 1917]

File:Hunt brothers cameo bracelet.jpeg, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]

Hunt was the son of Jonathan Hunt and Lavinia (Swan) Hunt.{{cite book|last=Chapman|first=George Thomas|title=Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College: From the First Graduation in 1771 to the Present Time, with a Brief History of the Institution|date=1867|publisher=Riverside Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sju7AAAAIAAJ/page/n135 133]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sju7AAAAIAAJ|quote=jonathan hunt son of Lavinia (Swan) Hunt.}} His father was born in Massachusetts and was an early pioneer and land speculator in Vermont. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont from 1794 to 1796. Hunt's uncle was composer and poet Timothy Swan,{{cite book|last=Dwight|first=Benjamin Woodbridge|title=The History of the Descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass, Volume 2|date=1874|publisher=J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders|page=576|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghcfAAAAMAAJ&q=jonathan+hunt+Timothy+Swan&pg=PA576}} and his aunt was married to U.S. Congressman Lewis R. Morris.{{cite book|last=Wyman|first=Thomas Bellows|title=Genealogy of the name and family of Hunt, etc|date=1863|publisher=Thomas Bellows Wyman|page=224|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1RxYAAAAcAAJ&q=Lewis+R.+Morris&pg=PA224}}

Hunt married Jane Maria Leavitt of Suffield, Connecticut.{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=Robert|title=Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, Volume 5|date=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=290|isbn=9780415216319|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9UbAQAAMAAJ&q=jonathan+hunt+married+Jane+Maria+Leavitt+vermont&pg=PA290}} She was part of the New England Dwight family which was heavily involved in the shipping business and in the purchase of the Western Reserve. Jane's father, Thaddeus Leavitt, was a successful merchant whose clipper ships traded with the West Indies. He invented an early cotton gin and was one of the principal purchasers of the Western Reserve lands in Ohio.{{cite book|last=Dwight|first=Benjamin Woodbridge|title=The History of the Descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass, Volume 1|date=1874|publisher=J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders|page=408|isbn=9781981482658|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QUcEIVKk_3sC&q=Thaddeus+Leavitt%2C}}

Hunt and his wife Jane had five children: artist Jane Maria Hunt, physician Jonathan Hunt, painter William Morris Hunt, architect Richard Morris Hunt and early photographer and New York attorney Leavitt Hunt.[https://archive.org/details/vermontgreenmou02crocgoog/page/n243 Vermont: The Green Mountain State, Walter Hill Crockett, New York, 1921]{{cite web|url= http://vermonthistory.org/documents/findaid/HuntFamily.pdf|title=Hunt Family Papers, 1758-1908|publisher=Vermont Historical Society|accessdate= May 10, 2014}} Following Hunt's death, his wife took their children to Geneva, Paris and Rome for an extended Grand Tour that stretched into a dozen years. The Hunt children were able to study the arts in European academies and become part of an American expatriate community in Europe. Four of Hunt's children returned to America. The fifth, his namesake son Jonathan, remained in Paris, where he studied medicine at the University of Paris and subsequently practiced medicine until his early death, a suicide in 1874. (Jonathan Hunt's son William Morris Hunt also committed suicide, at the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire.){{cite web|url= http://vermonthistory.org/documents/findaid/HuntFamily.pdf|title=Hunt Family Papers, 1758-1908|publisher=Vermont Historical Society|accessdate= May 10, 2014}} Hunt's nephew was Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt.{{cite web|url= http://designslinger.com/2012/11/14/michigan-boulevard-building.aspx|title=Michigan Boulevard Building|publisher=Designslinger |accessdate= May 10, 2014}}

• Richard Morris Hunt, William Morris Hunt, Leavitt Hunt, Jarvis Hunt
• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)

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• {{CongBio |H000974 |Hunt, Jonathan, (1787–1832)}}
• {{Find a Grave|6635191}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=_L0MAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22jonathan+hunt%22+dartmouth&pg=PA148 Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons, Redfield Proctor, Brattleboro, 1894]

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| title=Member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's 1st district

| before=William Czar Bradley

| after=Hiland Hall

| years = 1827-1832}}

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Category:1787 births

Category:1832 deaths

Category:People from Vernon, Vermont

Category:Hunt family (Vermont)

Category:Vermont National Republicans

Category:National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont

Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont

Category:Members of the Vermont House of Representatives

Category:Politicians from Brattleboro, Vermont

Category:Vermont lawyers

Category:Dartmouth College alumni

Category:Burials at Prospect Hill Cemetery (Brattleboro, Vermont)

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives

Category:19th-century members of the Vermont General Assembly