F. Bell Hunt

As printed in 1915

F. BELL HUNT.

F. Bell Hunt, who is the proprietor of The Feed Yard, Burlington, has been a resident of the city since 1913 but for many years before was actively identified with agricultural interests in this county and is a representative of one of its pioneer families.

Mr. Hunt was born in Burlington, March 15, 1860, a son of William Claybourne Hunt, whose birth occurred in Bond county, Illinois, on the 27th of June, 1818. The father came to Burlington in 1833, being one of the first residents here, there being only two log cabins on the site of the present city at the time of his arrival. Iowa was not organized as a territory at that time and the most farsighted could not have dreamed of the changes which would be wrought, making this one of the leading cities of a great state. He purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty-three acres and with characteristic energy began to break the sod and till the fields, living upon that place until 1901, when he sold his property and removed to Burlington. He died in January, 191 1, at the venerable age of ninety-two years. In early manhood he had wedded Ann Smith, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1820 and was thirteen years of age when she came to the United States with her parents, who settled near Burlington, where they owned a large farm, a part of which is still the property of F. Bell Hunt. The mother also reached the very advanced age of ninety-two years, passing away in July, 1913. In the family were eight children, five of whom survive: William A., a resident of Burlington; Mattie and Charles C, who live in Cuba, Illinois; John, a dentist residing in Mount Pleasant, Iowa; and F. Bell of this review. There are few families in the county that have been so long connected with the development of this section of the state. The father was personally acquainted with Black. Hawk and Keokuk, two of the most famous Indian chiefs residing in the middle Avest. He lived to witness remarkable changes, for the Indians ceased to be the occupants of the country and their wigwams were replaced by the cabins of the pioneers. These in turn gave way before the more commodious and substantial but no more hospitable homes of the farmer and townsman as the work of advancement and progress was carried forward.

F. Bell Hunt attended the district school near his father's farm, the little temple of learning having been built on land that belonged to his grandfather, and his father also went to school there. The building was constructed of logs after the primitive manner of the times and its furnishings were equally crude. F. Bell Hunt continued to attend school until about eighteen years of age and his last terms were spent in the old Baptist school. He remained upon the home farm with his father until forty-one years of age, when the property was sold to C. E. Perkins, in whose employ Mr. Hunt remained for six years. In 1913 he came to Burlington and purchased his present business, conducted under the name of The Feed Yard. He is meeting with success in this undertaking, having been accorded a liberal patronage.

In October, 1895, Mr. Hunt was united in marriage to Miss Margaret FuUerton, of Burlington, who was educated in the schools of this city while spending her girlhood days in the home of her father, Nixon Fullerton, one of the pioneers of this section of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt have become the parents of three children: Nixon Claybourne, eighteen years of age; Frances Grey, fifteen years of age; and Robert Bell, aged twelve. The two younger children are pupils in the high school of Burlington, while Claybourne is a student in the Episcopal school at Knoxville, Illinois. The parents are members of the Episcopal church and Mr. Hunt exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the democratic party. He is fond of outdoor sports and takes great delight in a fine saddle horse. For almost fifty-five years he has lived in this county and has been an interested witness of the changes which have occurred as time has passed and man has wrought continuously along the lines of development and improvement.

As printed in History of Des Moines County, Iowa (1915). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.