Leigh S. J. Hunt

Leigh Smith James Hunt (born Smith James Hunt; August 11, 1855 – October 5, 1933) was an American businessman. He is best known as the third president of Iowa State University (1885–1886), as publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1886–1893), and as founder and owner of the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company in Korea (1897–1903). He later operated a cotton plantation in Sudan until 1910. The community of Hunts Point, Washington bears his name.

Biography

Early life and education Smith James Hunt was born on a farm near Columbia City, Indiana, on August 11, 1855. His parents, Franklin and Martha (Long) Hunt, were natives of the same state. Hunt earned an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College via correspondence course and studied law on his own before passing the Indiana bar exam. In 1878, Hunt began to go by the name "Leigh," likely in reference to noted poet Leigh Hunt. In 1887 he became involved in the failed Great Western Iron and Steel Company venture initiated by Peter Kirk, in turn becoming a co-founder of the city of Kirkland. His later career included real estate development, operating gold mines in Unsan County, Korea under the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company, growing cotton in Sudan (1904–1910), and mining and land development in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Huntridge neighborhood in Las Vegas was developed on land that was his farm.

Marriage and children Hunt and his wife Jessie Noble Hunt (c. 1862–1960) were married in 1885 and had two children: Henry Leigh Hunt (1886–1972), 1st husband (1925–1930s) of Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin (1902–1969), French novelist and seed heiress. They had three daughters: Jessie, Alexandra, and Helena. Hunt would serve as Honorary Consul of Monaco in Las Vegas (1956–1963). Helen Hunt Rives (1893–1996)