County of town: Boone County
Location of town: On the western border of the county; crossroads of State Hwy O & State Hwy O (Grocery Branch Rd.)
Founded: 1892
Named after: William Burch Hunt
Elevation: 591 ft (180 m)
Population: 34
The Person:
William Burch Hunt
Born in Boone County, Missouri, on 18 Sep 1831 to Lenius Bouldin Linnaeus Hunt and Rebecca Brushwood. William Burch Hunt married Mary Ann Connelly Conley Hunt and had 7 children. He passed away on 7 Nov 1903 in Rocheport, Boone County, Missouri.
"William Burch Hunt was born about the time Gentry built the log house, and he grew up less than two miles from Gentry's home. William Hunt's father was Lenaus B. Hunt, a Virginia native who moved to Boone County with his wife Rebecca (Brushwood) Hunt in 1821. In 1822, he bought 80 acres of land located on a ridge near the river bottoms, just a southwest distance short of Hickman's land. Lenaus Hunt was apparently a wealth man, and early deed records refer to numerous mortgages which were filed to secure loans he made to his neighbors. He expanded his landholdings throughout the early decades of the century, and the agricultural census of 1850 recorded his ownership of some 360 acres, 100 of which were improved and being farmed.
"Not long after being recorded for the census, Lenaus Hunt decided to follow the "gold rush" to California. He left Missouri in 1850, taking along two sons, William B, of Birch, and Juda W, the younger brother. The trip was less than successful for the family; Juda W. died in route, and Lenaus died in California on July 31, 1851. Birch Hunt, who was just 20 years old when his father died, remained in California and mined gold until around 1854, when he returned to Missouri via New Orleans.
Family history holds that Birch Hunt did well in the gold fields, and came home a wealthy man. In any event, it appears that he was ready to settle down when he returned from California. By the end of 1858, he had married the daughter of a prominent Boone County pioneer, had the first of six children, and purchased the land that was to be his home for the next half century. He married Mary Ann Conley in 1855, and in 1857 their first child was born. Mary Ann Conley was the daughter of Benjamin Conley, a pioneer settler of Boone County later described as "one of the largest landholders in the county." In December 1858, William B. Hunt bought a 351.53 acre tract of land from Jas. S. Rollins, a prominent Boone Countian who owned countless parcels of land during that time period. That tract included the Gentry farmstead and log house, which Rollins had purchased from the Gentry estate in 1852.
"Records indicate that the new family lived in Gentry's log house for the first few years they owned the land, and they appeared to have concentrated on developing the farm operation in those early years. ... " ~ NRHP Nomination Form for the house he built on the property after 1860.
The Place:
"Huntsdale is a village in Boone County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31 at the 2010 census. The village was founded on August 1, 1892 and named after William Burch Hunt, a landowner. Huntsdale was first incorporated in 1906, but that status eventually fell into neglect and the last village council election took place in 1929. Due mainly to an influx of residential development in the area, Huntsdale was reincorporated in February 2003 and its first elections were held two months later. A center of activity in Huntsdale was Katfish Katy's, a small trail-side, seasonal restaurant along the Katy Trail State Park, until its closure in 2020. Katy's Little Lodge, formerly a bed and breakfast, was another notable business in the village." ~ Wikipedia
Huntsdale, laid out August 1, 1892, received its name from William Bunch Hunt, a nearby land owner." ~ COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN, Oct. 22, 1923, pages 4-5
"It is southeast of Rocheport, near the Missouri River." ~ The State of Missouri 1904, Walt Williams, page 335.
"It is situated on Sec. 35, Twp. 48 N, R. 14 W at the end of Highway O.
It was disincorporated since 1950; mail via Columbia; population 25." ~ Rand, McNally, 1974