Historical Tyson Landowners
Wilson Price hunt
Map of Hunt’s travels from Follow the Explorers.
Wilson Price Hunt was born on March 20th, 1783. In 1804, he moved from New Jersey to Missouri. In 1810, he connected with notable figure John Jacob Astor and they formed the Pacific Fur Company. A year later, Hunt was sent to lead an expedition for the company to the west coast, with the intent to establish a trading post with China. In 1812, they arrived in Astoria, Oregon. This route would later become the Oregon Trail. From Oregon, Hunt continued on to Hawaii and Alaska in his ship The Beaver. Another one of his ships, The Pedlar, was held by the Spanish in San Luis Obispo, CA, on smuggling charges. In 1817, Hunt returned to St. Louis and farmed on a parcel of land outside of the city (potentially his Tyson property). In 1822, President Monroe appointed him the Postmaster of St. Louis, a position that he maintained until his death in 1840.
Wilson was also known as William. He married Ann Lucas Hunt, the widow of his cousin, Theodore Hunt. They had no children. Hunt is listed as owning property on the Tyson land in 1838.
Image of Wilson Price Hunt, from Wikipedia.
Wilson Price Hunt and Anne Lucas Hunt were enslavers. A 9 year old boy named Winifred and a 4 year old boy named Frank were recorded as enslaved in 1856 on the Court Ordered Slave Sales from St. Louis Probate Court Records. Two women, Ann Hunt who was 28 years old and Martha Hunt who was 35 years old, were recorded in 1853 in the Freedom Licenses Database; St. Louis County Court Record Book. Their last names indicate a likely association with the Hunt family.
The Lucas family was also composed of enslavers, notably Hunt’s wife Ann Lucas and her brother James Lucas. Ann Lucas and her first husband, Theodore, held Jean, Marie Agy, Jean, Mary, Charles, Fillia, and Maria in slavery. People enslaved by Anne Lucas Hunt in 1845 St. Louis City Census included two women and a man between the age of 21 and 44, and one boy and girl both under the age of 10. People enslaved by Anne Lucas Hunt in the 1850 census, St. Louis Ward 3 included six women aged 8 years old to 48, and two men aged 38 and 46. People enslaved by Anne Lucas Hunt in the 1860 census, St. Louis Central included a 40 year old woman, a 36 year old man, and a 7 year old boy.
Photo of the Hunt Mausoleum taken at Cavalry Cemetery on 7/5/2024, by Emmett Kearns.
Depiction of Hunt and the Astorians on the 1926 Astoria Column monument in Oregon.
Portion of E. Dupre’s 1838 Atlas of the City and County of St. Louis showing Hunt’s land in 1838, within the current Tyson border. He owned a rectangular parcel along the center of the west edge.
Resources
Anne Lucas Hunt (1796–1879) | Missouri Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://missouriencyclopedia.org/people/hunt-anne-lucas.
Astoria Column, Column Scenes, Mural Views. (2008, September 7). https://web.archive.org/web/20080907115226/http://www.astoriacolumn.org/pages/history2.htm
Biro, E. Tyson Border Polygon. (2023) Tyson Research Center.
Chittenden, H. M. (1902). The American Fur Trade of the Far West. New York: Francis P. Harper. archive.org/details/americanfurtrad01chitgoog/page/n222/mode/2up?q=wilson+hunt.
Dupre, E. (1838) Atlas of the City and County of St. Louis. Missouri Historical Society. http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/564340.
Follow The Explorers—Wilson Price Hunt Trail. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://followtheexplorers.com/trails/Wilson_Price_Hunt/index.en.html
Kearns, E. Hunt’s Land 1838 ArcGIS Polygon. (2024) Washington University in St. Louis.
Kelly L. Schmidt, “James H. Lucas and the Inheritances of Slavery,” WashU & Slavery Project, 2022.
Ross, Alexander, 1783-1856 (1923). Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River; edited with historical introduction and notes by Milo Milton Quaife. Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. archive.org/details/adventuresoffirs00ross_1/page/10/mode/2up?q=hunt.
St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement | Washington University in St. Louis. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://sites.wustl.edu/enslavementstl/search/.
Wilson Price Hunt (1783–1842). (n.d.). Missouri Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://missouriencyclopedia.org/people/hunt-wilson-price.
Wilson Price Hunt. (17 June 2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Price_Hunt.
This Tyson landowner profile was researched and written by Undergraduate Fellow Emmett Kearns and edited by Undergraduate Fellow Juliana Morera during summer 2024.