John Wesley Hunt

rdf:langString John Wesley Hunt

rdf:langString John Wesley Hunt

rdf:langString John Wesley Hunt

rdf:langString Lexington Cemetery

rdf:langString Charlton Hunt

rdf:langString Merchant, horse breeder, banker, civic leader

rdf:langString John Hunt Morgan

rdf:langString Thomas Hunt Morgan

rdf:langString Garrett Morgan

rdf:langString Catherine Hunt

rdf:langString 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. John Wesley Hunt was born in 1773 in Trenton, New Jersey. He was the son of a Lt. Col. in the Revolutionary War, Abraham Hunt, and Theodosia Pearson Hunt. Moving to Lexington in 1795, he became a merchant, horsebreeder, hemp manufacturer, and banker. In 1799, President John Adams named Hunt as postmaster of Lexington. A horsebreeder, he introduced the Messenger strain to Kentucky in the winter of 1839-1840. He married Catherine Grosh, and in 1814, he built a two-story brick mansion known as "Hopemont" (today known as The Hunt-Morgan House) for him and his wife. Their son became the first mayor of Lexington. He died in 1849. He was buried in the family plot at the Lexington Cemetery. His grandson, John Hunt Morgan, was a famous Confederate general during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. Through John Hunt Morgan, he was also the great-great grandfather of African-American inventor Garrett Morgan. A great-grandson, Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan, was the first Kentuckian to win a Nobel Prize.