Hunnewell

Active and fruitful as was HunnewelPs finan-
cial career, his energies were by no means
absorbed by it. In another field, remote from
banking, his achievements were noteworthy. To
the property in the present town of Wellesley,
Mass., inherited by his wife from her father, he
added a large acreage and there he not only made
his summer home but also experimented with
trees and shrubs which would grow in New Eng-
land His Italian garden, his many imported
rhododendrons and azaleas, and a remarkable
collection of coniferous trees gave evidence of
his intense interest in horticulture. His efforts
in this direction, however, were not limited to
enriching his own estate. For forty years the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society depended
upon his intelligent interest and support; similar-
ly the Arnold Arboretum owed much to him,
and the botany departments of Harvard Univer-
sity and Wellesley College received generous
benefactions from him. Throughout his life
Hunnewell was an active member of the Arling-
ton Street Congregational Church of Boston. To
him the town of Wellesley, named in compliment
to his wife's family, owes its public library and
town hall as well as its park and playground.

[The Life, Letters, and Diary of Horatio Hollis
Hunnewell (3 vpls., 1906), edited by a grandson, H.
H. Hunnewell, is quite complete. Short sketches of
Htmnewell's life appear ^ in the New-Eng. Hist, and
Geneal. Reg., supp. to issue of Apr. 1903, and the
Townsman (Wellesley, Mass.), Dec. 8, 1911. See also
J. F. Hunnewell, Hunnewellf Chiefly Six Generations in
Mass. (1900).] E.D.

HUNNEWELL, JAMES (Feb. 10, i;94-May
2, 1869), sea captain, merchant, was born in
Charlestown, Mass., the son of William and
Sarah (Frothingham) Hunnewell. His father's
ancestor, Ambrose Hunnewell, of Devonshire,
England, settled at the mouth of the Kennebec
River in Maine about 1660, whence a son Charles
removed to Charlestown in 1698. The families
of both parents were substantial farmers in that
vicinity. An athletic and daring boy, James
longed from early childhood for a seafaring life.
At first he was discouraged, but finally at the age
of fifteen he was allowed to leave school for a
long voyage to Europe and the Mediterranean.
In 1815 he went to China as a common sailor,
and on Oct. 9 of the following year he shipped on
a brig which traded along the California coast.
At Honolulu the vessel was sold to Hawaiian
chiefs, who were to pay in sandalwood, which
had become the local currency when Americans
discovered its value in China. The captain of the
ship departed for Canton, and Hunnewell, now
an officer, was left to collect payment This task
required several months of extensive travel

Hunt

through the islands and gave him an opportunity
to become familiar with the natives, learn their
customs, and gain the confidence of chiefs and
royal family. He then sold the sandalwood in
China and returned to America. He reached
home in April 1819 and on Sept. 23 of that year
married Susannah Lamson of Charlestown. Ex-
actly a month later he sailed as second mate of
the brig Tkaddeus, which was taking to Hawaii
the first American missionaries. Left at Hono-
lulu to barter part of the cargo when the brig
went to California, he aided in persuading an
unwilling native king to receive the missionaries.
When the Thaddeus returned to the islands she
was sold, and Hunnewell a second time remained
to collect the sandalwood. It came in so slowly
that it was not until July 4,1825, that he arrived
again in Boston. Determined to revisit Hawaii
as an independent trader, and unable to buy a
vessel, he agreed to take out the Missionary
Packet-, a schooner built for the mission, in return
for the privilege of loading on her fifty barrels
of merchandise and rum. On this tiny craft,
forty-nine feet in length and thirty-nine tons in
burden, comfortless and unseaw6rthy, he made
the extremely hazardous voyage around Cape
Horn, reaching Honolulu in October 1826 after
a passage of nine months and one day. During
the next four years he developed there a large
business, supplying to the natives rum, cotton
goods, and "Yankee notions," and to merchant-
men and whalers, repair supplies and food. The
proceeds in sandalwood and the furs of the
Northwest coast he shipped to China. His busi-
ness grew into the commercial house later known
as C Brewer & Company. In 1830 he took his
clerk, Henry A. Peirce [g.z>.]» into partnership
to manage the Honolulu establishment and he
himself returned to Charlestown* There he spent
the rest of his life, actively engaged until 1866 in
exporting goods to Hawaii and California. He
amassed a considerable fortune, of which he gave
liberally to found Oahu College.

[Hutraeweirs Jour, of the Voyage of the Missionary
Packet (1880), contains a memoir by his son, James F.
Hunnewell. See also Josephine Sullivan, Hist, of C.
Brewer and Company (1926); and the Boston Trim*
script, May 3, 1869.] w. L, W—*. Jr.

HUNT, ALFRED EPHRAIM (Mar. 31,
i855-Apr. 26, 1899), metallurgist and engineer,
son of Leander B. and Mary Hannah (Hanchett)
Hunt [?.».], was born at East Douglas, Mass,
He was descended from William Hunt, who in
1635 came from Salisbury, England, and settled
with the first colony at Concord, Mass. Alfred's
paternal grandfather was the founder of the Hunt
Axe & Edge Tool Works of East Douglas, with

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