George WP Hunt

George WP Hunt

Governor Hunt (left) when the USS Arizona is launched .

The grave of George Hunt and his wife Helen; the white pyramid in Papago Park cemetery

George Wylley Paul Hunt (born November 1, 1859 in Huntsville , Randolph County , Missouri , †  December 24, 1934 in Phoenix , Arizona ) was the first governor of the US state of Arizona. He belonged to the Democratic Party .

Career

George Hunt only attended school for eight years. During this time he went to a public and a private school. Hunt moved to Arizona to look for gold there, but instead went into politics. He worked for the Old Dominion Commercial Company from 1890 , of which he later became Secretary and President. In 1904 he was elected the first mayor of Globe . Hunt was a member of the legislature in the Arizona Territory between 1892 and 1894 and served in the Arizona Territorial Council in 1896, 1898, 1904, 1906 and 1908 , of which he was president in 1905 and 1909. He was also a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1900 and chaired the Arizona Constitutional Convention in 1910, which ultimately led to statehood .

Hunt became the first governor of the state of Arizona on October 24, 1911. He was re-elected six times. In 1916 Republican Thomas Edward Campbell was declared the winner and held the post for nearly a year before the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Hunt was the actual winner. During his seven terms in office, a retirement plan for teachers who had served 25 years was passed, the State Bureau of Mines was opened, and the legislature passed a prohibition law . The State Law Library and Bureau of Statistics were established, and programs to pave and expand the highway system using convicted convicts were initiated. Between two terms of office, Hunt held the office of US ambassador to Thailand in 1920 and 1921 as the successor to George Pratt Ingersoll .

Due to his advanced age and the expense of his patronage in the newly formed Highway Patrol, Hunt retired from public life and left his office on January 2, 1933. Hunt died on December 24, 1934 at his home in Phoenix and was on the Papago Park Cemetery buried.

family

George Hunt married Helen Duett Ellison on February 24, 1904 in Holbrook . The couple had an only daughter named Virginia .

literature

• Robert Sobel and John Raimo (Eds.): Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978. Volume 1, Meckler Books, Westport, 1978. 4 volumes.
• John S. Goff: George WP Hunt . In: Myers, John L. (ed.) (Ed.): The Arizona governors, 1912-1990 . Heritage Publishers, Phoenix 1989, ISBN 0-929690-05-2 , pp. 7-17).
• James W. Johnson: Arizona Politicians: The Noble and the Notorious , illustrations by David 'Fitz' Fitzsimmons, University of Arizona Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8165-2203-0 .
• Jay J. Wagoner: Arizona Territory 1863-1912: A Political history . University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1970, ISBN 0-8165-0176-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Picture with his wife Helen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Source: Arizona Memory Project  
2. ↑ Picture with George Hunt in front of his family grave, the white pyramid  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ The white pyramid in the overall view  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Picture of Hunt with his wife and daughter Virginia in front of the US Embassy in Bangkok (Siam) around 1921 ( Memento of the original from August 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Picture of Helen Hunt with her daughter Virginia ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

Commons : George WP Hunt  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• George Hunt in the National Governors Association (English)
• The Political Graveyard (English)
• George WP Hunt in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Literature by and about George WP Hunt in the bibliographic database WorldCat (English)