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Daniel Newcomb Hunt Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1728-1730 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
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	DANIEL NEWCOMB HUNT, one of the earliest settlers in Spink county, 
and the first mayor of the present attractive little city of Redfield, 
was born in Mansfield, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of 
January, 1843, and is a son of Dr. Daniel Newcomb Hunt and Miranda B. 
(Allen) Hunt, the former of whom was born in Rutland, Vermont, and the 
latter in Massachusetts. From a carefully compiled record of the 
genealogy of the Newcomb family the following data is obtained: Captain 
Charles Hunt, grandfather of the subject, married, in 1788, Jerusha 
Newcomb, a daughter of Lieutenant Daniel Newcomb, who was in the sixth 
generation in descent from Andrew Newcomb, who came from England to the 
New England colonies about 1650. Family tradition farther states, in 
connection with the maternal ancestry of the subject, that his 
grandfather Allen was a relative of Ethan Allen, of Ticonderoga fame, 
and also a descendant of Priscilla Alden, whose gentle virtues are so 
pleasingly recorded in the poem of "Miles Standish," by Longfellow. Both 
grandfathers were valiant soldiers of the Continental line during the 
war of the Revolution. 

	In 1853 Dr. Daniel N. Hunt, father of the subject, removed with 
his family from Pennsylvania to Reedsburg, Sauk county. Wisconsin, where 
he was engaged in the practice of his profession about five years, at 
the expiration of which time he removed to Granger, Fillmore county, 
Minnesota, where the mother died in 1864, at the age of fifty-five 
years. The father was born in 1799. He lived through every 
administration of the United States government until his death. In 1880 
he came to Spink county, South Dakota, where he died in 1884. The 
subject was about ten years of age at the time of the family's removal 
to Wisconsin, and from 1853 to 1858 he was a student in the public 
schools of Reedsburg, and from 1859 to 1861 he continued his educational 
work in the schools at Decorah, Iowa. After the close of his service in 
the Civil war he entered the Eastman Business College, in the city of 
Chicago, where he was graduated in the spring of 1866. 

	On the 15th of March, 1862, Mr. Hunt enlisted as a private in 
Company C, Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and re-enlisted as a 
veteran in the same company and regiment in 1864, with which he served 
until the close of the war, having been mustered out on the 6th of 
September, 1865. He was with his regiment in thirteen campaigns, five 
sieges and thirty-four battles and minor engagements, among which was 
the siege of Fort Ridgely, during the Indian massacre in Minnesota, in 
1862. Mr. Hunt's name appears upon a monument erected by the state of 
Minnesota in commemoration of this massacre. He also holds a medal 
presented to him by the same state, one of which was given to each 
soldier present at the memorable tragedy. After receiving his honorable 
discharge Mr. Hunt returned to Granger, Minnesota, and thereafter was 
engaged in farming and teaching school in that state until April, 1879, 
when he came to what is now Spink county, South Dakota, being one of the 
first citizens of the city of Redfield, he being here when the town was 
founded and surveyed. Here he established himself in the real-estate 
business, in which line he has ever since continued operations, being 
one of the leading dealers in this section of the state. He was register 
of deeds of the county, by appointment, from 1880 to January 1, 1881, 
and was secretary of the first Republican convention called in the 
county to elect delegates to the territorial convention. He was a member 
of the first constitutional convention of the territory, at Sioux Falls, 
in 1884. In May, 1883, he was elected the first mayor of Redfield, 
receiving a silver dollar as his salary, the facts in the case having 
been engraved on the coin by order of the council, and it is needless to 
say that Mr. Hunt places a high valuation on this unique and historic 
souvenir. He has been four times re-elected to the office of mayor, 
having been re-elected the last time on May 1, 1904. He called and was 
chairman of the first school meeting held in the county, and from the 
early days to the present he has always been found at the front in 
lending his aid and influence in support of measures and enterprises 
tending to promote the general welfare and progress. He has given his 
efforts in furtherance of the cause of the Republican party, of whose 
principles he is a staunch advocate. He was initiated in the Masonic 
fraternity in 1865 and is still actively affiliated with the same. He 
has been identified with the Grand Army of the Republic from the time of 
its organization in the territory of Dakota, having held office in his 
post and being at the present writing quartermaster of George H. Thomas 
Post, No. 5, in his home city. 

	On the 15th of February, 1873, Mr. Hunt was married to Miss 
Adalynn J. Ellis, who was born in the state of Vermont, on the 2d of 
October, 1849, and is a descendant of the Chase family who came from 
England to the Massachusetts colony in the early colonial epoch. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hunt have three children, Arlington Chase, who was born on the 2d 
of January, 1877; Georgie Mae, born August 15, 1881, and Ray Nelson, 
born February 8, 1887. 

	The following story of an early trip made by Mr. Hunt is of 
special interest: 

	About the middle of March, 1881, I hired William West, now of 
Clifton township, and Ira Bowman, brother of the present chairman of the 
county board, to attempt a trip to Huron for provisions. There had been 
nothing received from outside since the first of January, except one 
small load of flour brought in February from Huron by F. H. Craig. A 
heavy storm followed and to get that flour from his place to Old Ashton—
about eight miles—required two teams and three men three days. The flour 
had to be conveyed by the men from Craig's place to Belcher's ford, a 
distance of two miles. This flour had been largely distributed and 
consumed, and I engaged the two men, West and Bowman, to attempt another 
trip to Huron. 

	When knowledge that the trip was to be attempted had spread, our 
party was joined by the mail carrier, who had been snowed in for a month 
at Old Ashton, and by Cal Spencer, who afterward built the Clyde mill in 
1881. I accompanied the party, which consisted of five men with four 
horses and one covered wagon. 

	The first day out from Old Ashton we made Redfield, a distance of 
five miles, and stopped with Mrs. Welker. The second day we made an 
early start and took a straight line south to the grade of the Chicago 
and Northwestern road, which had been thrown up in the summer of 1880, 
but had not been ironed, and from there followed the grade, and by night 
had reached the high grade just north of Hitchcock. The most difficult 
points were where the culverts now cross sloughs and through the cuts. 
These were filled level with the prairie with snow, and to cross we men 
would shovel and tread the snow and then give the lead team about thirty 
feet of chain, and when they were through to solid footing they helped 
drag through the other team and wagon. The second night we wintered in a 
snow house, dug in about ten feet of snow, over which was spread a tent 
cover. The night was severely cold and none were allowed to sleep in the 
snow house more than two hours at a time, but were made to get out and 
walk on the grade to keep up circulation. By the second night all but 
two of the party had gone snow blind so that they had to be piloted. The 
third day we made Huron. The Pierre branch had been ironed, and when we 
reached James Valley junction we took to the track and bumped over the 
ties, to the amusement of the few residents of Huron who had been warned 
of our coming by the rattle of the wagon, and who were curious to know 
who and what were coming and where from. 

	I bought all the flour I could secure in Huron, about three 
thousand pounds, upon which some of the citizens were disposed to put an 
embargo, lest they also should get short. The fourth day we spent in 
building a couple of snow boats, convinced by our trip down that we 
never could get the load back by wheels. They were made of boards about 
ten feet long, turned up a little at the front and bolted to a scantling 
frame by which to haul it, the boards serving as runners. The flour, 
with some other provisions and feed for the teams, made for each boat a 
load of about one thousand eight hundred pounds, 

	The fifth day we started on the return trip by way of the VanDusen 
ranch, which lies nearly due north from Huron. We had a compass with 
which to keep our direction. For the first few hours, owing to a thaw 
and freeze, the snow crust carried both the horses and sleds and we made 
good time. The snow at this time stood at least three feet deep on the 
level prairie. When the crust softened so that the team would break 
through the progress was a slow wallowing, and by night we had made the 
twelve miles to the ranch. Here we struck quite comfortable quarters for 
both men and teams. 

	From the ranch to Old Ashton was a distance of twenty-five miles, 
and for the first eighteen miles there was no trail and no shanty of any 
kind. This we knew to be the most critical day of the whole trip, and 
possibly we tried to crowd too rapidly. I had set the compass direct for 
Old Ashton and we began the slow wallowing, but before night it became 
evident that we could not make Holcomb's during daylight and so I pushed 
on ahead and had a light hung out on a pole at Holcomb's to guide the 
other boys. The horses played out so thoroughly that the boys left the 
loads in the big slough near Will Bingham's present residence and came 
in to Holcomb's for the night. On the seventh day we returned for our 
loads, and by noon had gotten as far as Warden's. Here I engaged Jimmie 
Warden, who had six yoke of cattle, to yoke up and drive them from there 
to the river, thus breaking a road through which our teams made fair 
progress. From the river we knew we had a track, and at sundown of the 
seventh day, which was Sunday, we reached home. 

	The frozen snow cut the legs of both the men and horses so 
severely that protection was provided for by wrapping our legs and the 
legs of the horses with grain sacks, and not less than one hundred grain 
sacks were worn to rags in the trip.