Northampton HUNTs-Submitted by Bi Hunt, grandaughter of 
Col. S. B.(Sandy) Hunt.

     This is a story of  my ggreat uncle , a Texas
pioneer, first cousin of Gov. Washington Hunt of NY and Edward
Bissell Hunt, husband of that great fighter for the American
Indians, Helen Hunt Jackson,  father of Texas poetess Belle
Hunt and brother of  my ggreat grandfather Sanford  B. Hunt M.D.
        
William Hudson Hunt, one of the first settlers of western Wise
County TX established a ranch headquarters in 1855 called Cactus Hill 
on Hunt's Creek a tributary of the West Fork of the Trinity River.
William came to Texas from NY with his brother Richard Salmon Hunt, of
Bonham, owner and publisher of the Bonham (TX)Advertiser.(ca. 1850).

       William was a land surveyor and did many surveys in Texas
to verify land grants and took his pay in land certificates.
As a result he obtained land from the West Fork of the Trinity to
some distance down into Parker County. Cactus Hill ranch
headquarters became known to the Postal Department as "Cactus Hill"
and the first Postmaster was William Hudson Hunt, June 1858.

 
      Grandfather tells us  that William Hudson Hunt played a great
part in the history of early Texas. Assisted by the memory of other
great early Texans we quote from notes of Mrs. D. J. Galbraith and
Mrs. Kate Hunt Craddock of Honey Grove and Terrell, Tx: William
Hunt was a man gifted with a genius for leadership etc etc.

       We would be remiss not to mention the Texas poet Belle Hunt,
wife of Capt. Samuel Shortridge and daughter of William. She was
"prolific and versatile writer", with articles published in leading
New York journals and magazines. Belle Hunt published a collection
of poems, "Lone Star Nights' in 1891. Mrs. Shortridge was interred
in the "family burying ground at Cactus Hill, Wise County Texas.". 
 
       The Hunt family cemetery was moved from Cactus Hill to the
East Side Cemetery of Bridgeport TX so that construction of Lake
Bridgeport could commence.  (1920s). During the movement of the 
graves one was overlooked or lost.

 A thorough discussion of Cactus Hill and this Hunt family can
be found in "Pioneer History of Wise County", by Cliff D. Cates,
whence some of the foregoing is paraphrased.

Bi Hunt - Lubbock Texas  1990 Texas Tech University