Source: Portrait & Biographical Album of Whiteside County, IL
Originally published 1885 Chapman Bros., Chicago, IL

Transcribed by: Becky Jones

Pages 582-583

Russell Hunt has been a farmer on section 12, Albany Township, since 1867. He was born June 7, 1825, in Kanawha Co., W.Va., and is the son of Whitting B. and Sarah (Moss) Hunt. His parents were natives respectively of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and they settled in West Virginia after their marriage. The senior Hunt died in 1828, leaving his wife with seven children. She went with her family to Franklin Co., Ohio, and after a brief residence there went to Scioto County in the same state.  After several removals in Ohio, they went to Indiana, and remained until 1844, when they came to Rock Island Co., Ill. Four years later they went to Clinton Co., Iowa. There the mother made her home until 1867, when she came to Albany to live with her son. She died in 1874.

Mr. Hunt was three years old when his father died, and after that went to live principally with an older sister in Kentucky and in Cincinnati. In the spring of 1844 he came to Illinois, making the journey on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. He reached Rock Island April 16, and went at once to Davenport, Iowa, and resided with a sister there until 1846., when he went to Clinton County, in the same State, and entered Government land in the township of Comanche, on which he built a frame house of hard wood. He operated to  a considerable extent in land traffic, buying claims of the United States, which he improved and sold at an advance. In 1867 he crossed the Mississippi River, and bought a farm on section 12, in Albany Township, of which he has since been the occupant. Mr. Hunt is a Republican in political prinicple. He cast his first vote for the State Constitution of Iowa.

He was married in December, 1848, to Anna Mathews. She was born March 24, 1833, in Wayne Co., Ohio, and is the daughter of John and Sarah (Butler) Mathews. Her father was a native of England, and her mother was born in Ohio. In 1839 the family settled in Clinton Co., Iowa and were among the pioneer settlers there. Her father died in Clinton County, in October, 1877. Alfred W., Eva L., Sarah L., Olive M. and Ida are the names of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Hunt. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Albany.