George Riley Hunt
Biography by Leon R. Hunt

George Riley Hunt was the third child from a family of seven, four girls and three boys.  
He was born 1846 in Saline County, Illinois.  On October 14, 1866 when he was 20 years 
old, he married Amelia Missouri Odle, third in a family of eleven, who was 18 years old.

In the Spring of 1867 they moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota, traveling on the Mississippi 
River.  This was a trip of five to seven days.  They settled in Eden Lake Township, 
County of Sterns.  Their local Post Office was called Torah.  This was a community of 
other Illinois settlers.  Isaac Chester Odle the four year old youngest brother of Amelia, 
accompanied them.  For what reason is not known.  Three years later, in 1870, George 
bought eighty acres of farmland from John and Elizabeth Sheffner for $450.00.  this land 
was located 1 1/2 miles northwest of the present city of Eden Valley.  Before the 1870 
census, George and Amelia had a son Noah Lewis, born in 1867, died 1868 and daughter 
Nancy Eunice, born 1869, died 1870.  This census lists george as head of the family with 
Amelia and her brother Issac.  Their real estate was valued at $250.00 and personal estate 
at $130.00.  His occupation was farmer.  Eden Lake had, at this time, fifteen families and 
a total population of forty-two.  There also resided a school teacher, a twenty-two year 
old female named Abott Lobb.  After the 1870 census, on December 31, Rosa Lillian was born, 
but there is no furthur mention of Isaac Chester Odle who would have been seven years old.

In 1873, two and a half years later when George was twenty-seven, they appear seventy-five 
miles North of Eden Lake, at Reynolds, Todd County, where they had filed a homestead claim. 
Here a son Abel Immanuel was born on July 4th but died only three months later.  In the 
next six years, at Reynolds, three more daughters were born; Dora Vivian, Florence Eva and 
Olive Iona.

On January 23, 1880, their eighty acres in Eden Lake was sold for $400.00 to Francis M. 
Hoskins, an unmarried man from Eden Lake who owned the farm bordering George's.

In April of 1880 George, Amelia and their four children started with ox team and wagon for 
Kansas homestead land and a milder climate.  They left their 160 acre homestead in Reynolds 
unsold, as they had not yet received the patent.  This was a trip to entail almost 700 miles 
and consume over two months.  

In 1890 the homestead in Minnesota was sold to Mary Alice Lunceford for $1,000.00, also 
assuming an existing mortgage.