Elisha Hunt (steamboat pioneer)
Elisha Hunt (1779–1873) was the principal entrepreneur behind the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company that built and operated the historic steamboat Enterprise.[1][2]
Elisha Hunt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 7, 1779 Moorestown, Burlington County, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | July 23, 1873 Moorestown, Burlington County, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Farmer Merchant |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Hussey (1773–1843) Sarah (Morey) Underwood (1797-1889) |
| Children | 1 |
Early life
Hunt was born on October 7, 1779, in Moorestown, New Jersey, to Joshua and Esther Hunt, the former Esther Roberts.[3]
In September 1790, Joshua, Esther, Elisha and his four siblings, "with two wagons, seven horses, one cow, and provisions", began a three-week journey to Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania.[4][5] Their destination was a small, but growing, community located on the east bank of the Monongahela River in close proximity to Fort Burd. In those days it was called Redstone Old Fort, or simply Redstone. Later, the name was changed to Brownsville.
Salem, Ohio
On May 23, 1827, a certificate from Redstone Monthly Meeting, Brownsville, Pennsylvania requesting membership for Elisha, Mary and Emmor Hunt was accepted by Salem Monthly Meeting, Salem, Ohio.[6]
On September 28, 1831, a certificate from Salem Monthly Meeting, Salem, Ohio requesting membership for Elisha and Mary Hunt was accepted by Redstone Monthly Meeting, Brownsville, Pennsylvania.[7]
Notes
- Shourds, pp. 314-20
- Henshaw, pp. 51-7
- Hynes, pp. 23-4
- Hunt Family Papers, "Biography of Joshua and Esther Hunt by their children", Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania:
"Our Parents [Joshua and Esther Hunt] removed to Redstone [Brownsville, Fayette Co., PA] in the 9th and 10 months 1790" - Woodward, p. 270:
"Elisha Hunt, eldest son of Joshua, also removed with his parents to Redstone Fort, Pa., and being the eldest child, then eleven years of age, he remembered well the tedious journey, with two wagons, seven horses, one cow, and provisions, across the Delaware on scows, through Philadelphia, then not built above Fifth Street, across the Schuylkill on a raft, made of logs, and a three weeks' trip with its many interesting incidents, finally reaching their destination." - EAQG, Vol. IV, Page 725, Salem Monthly Meeting
- EAQG, Redstone Monthly Meeting, Page 94
References
- Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (EAQG), Vol I-VI, 1607-1943
- Horn, W. F. [ed.] (1945), The Horn papers: early western movement on the Monongahela and upper Ohio, 1765–1795, volume 3, Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press
- Roberts-Hunt Family Papers, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
- The Friend (1873), "Esther Collins and Ann Edwards", The Friend, a religious and literary journal, Volume XLVI, No. 46 and 47, Philadelphia: William H. Pile, pp. 362, 370-3
- Henshaw, Marc Nicholas (2014). "Hog chains and Mark Twains: a study of labor history, archaeology, and industrial ethnography of the steamboat era of the Monongahela Valley 1811-1950." Dissertation, Michigan Technological University
- Hunter, Louis C. (1949). Steamboats on the western rivers, an economic and technological history. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1949; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1993.
- Hynes, Judy, et al. (1997), The descendants of John and Elizabeth (Woolman) Borton, Mount Holly, New Jersey: John Woolman Memorial Association, pp. 23–4
- Shourds, Thomas (1876). History and genealogy of Fenwick's Colony, New Jersey. Bridgeton, New Jersey: 314–20. ISBN 0-8063-0714-5
- Woodward, E. M. (1883), History of Burlington County, New Jersey, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, pp. 270–1