Politics / Business & brands / City history
Henry I. Hunt
1786–1826 · merchant, mayor of Detroit
Early Detroit merchant and officeholder who became mayor in 1826 and died in office that September; uncle of the Civil War artillery chief of the same name.
- Born
Watertown, New York- Died
Detroit, Michigan- Birth name
- Henry Jackson Hunt
- Also known as
- Henry Jackson Hunt
- Detroit years
- 1800–1826
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Henry Jackson Hunt, often written Henry I. Hunt, was born in Watertown, New York, in 1786, the eldest son of Revolutionary War colonel Thomas Hunt. He arrived in Detroit around 1800, when the town had only recently passed from British to American control, and built a business in trade and real estate, sometimes in partnership with Lewis Cass. In 1811 he married Ann Mackintosh, daughter of a well-to-do fur trader known as the 'Earl of Moy.' Over the next quarter century he held a string of local posts: militia colonel, county court judge, city assessor and one of the early trustees of the University of Michigan. Elected mayor of Detroit in 1826, he died in office on September 15 of that year and was succeeded by Jonathan Kearsley. His nephew and namesake, born in Detroit, became chief of artillery of the Union's Army of the Potomac.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit in 1826; died in office
- Business partner of Lewis Cass in trade and real estate
- Trustee of the University of Michigan (1821)
- Uncle of Union general Henry Jackson Hunt