James R. Hunt, proprietor of the Spring Hill Dairy, Ottawa, Illinois, has been in business here for over twenty-seven years. He purchased the dairy from Samuel Dickerman, keeps over fifty head of cows, and has a large sale for his products - pure milk and cream.
Mr. Hunt was born January 25, 1847, in the Sandwich Islands, where his father, Rev. T. Dwight Hunt, was a missionary. His father was a native of Rochester, N. Y., was educated at Yale college, and was for many years a minister of the gospel, a power for good wherever his influence was felt. For seven years he was located in California, doing evangelistic work. He died in New York at the advanced age of seventy-four years. His wife's death occurred some years previous to his. She was a native of Newark, New Jersey, where they were married, her maiden name being Mary Hedges.
The first eight years of James R. Hunt's life were spent in California. The next move the family made was to New York, and from there he went to Marquette county, Wisconsin, locating near Portage City. Thus his boyhood experience was diversified, being passed in the far west, the east and in the middle northern state of Wisconsin. When he was twenty-one years of age he was united in marriage to Miss Evelyn M. Bangs, a daughter of Alba Bangs, of Oxford, Wisconsin. The fruit of their union is seven children, whose names in order of birth are as follows: William B., a missionary in Korea, who was educated at Lake Forest University at Lake Forest, Illinois, and Princeton Seminary, at Princeton, New Jersey; Mary C, the wife of Robert Evans, a missionary in China; Henry H., educated at Wooster University, at Wooster, Ohio, and is now a resident of Moline, Illinois; and Charlotte, Laura L., Gertrude M., and J. Raymond, at home. Mr. Hunt is a public-spirited man, interested in educational matters and all that tends to promote the general welfare of his community. For years he has been a member of the school board. He is politically a Republican and religiously a Presbyterian. He joined the Presbyterian church in Oxford, Wisconsin, and he has remained a consistent church member, regularly attending services.
Extracted by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois published in 1900, volume 1, pages 181-182.
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