John Wesley Hunt (1773–1849) was a prominent businessman and early civic leader in Lexington, Kentucky. He was one of the first millionaires west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Moving to Lexington in 1795, Hunt became a merchant, horsebreeder, hemp manufacturer, and banker. In 1799, President John Adams named Hunt as postmaster of Lexington. In 1814, Hunt built a two-story brick mansion known as "Hopemont" (today known as The Hunt-Morgan House) for him and his wife Catherine. His son Charlton Hunt became the first mayor of Lexington. In the winter of 1839-1840, Hunt introduced the Messenger strain to Kentucky.
John Wesley Hunt's grandson, John Hunt Morgan, was a famous Confederate general during the American Civil War. A great-grandson, Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan, was the first Kentuckian to win a Nobel Prize.
Hunt is buried in the family plot in the Lexington Cemetery.
Famous quotes containing the words wesley and/or hunt:
“I rise superior to my pain,
When I am weak then I am strong;”
—Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)