Hunt

ing the rolling mills of the Bay City Iron Works,
he became interested in the possibility of using
flexible steel cable for rope drives, and developed
a flexible steel rope for this purpose. The results
of his study in this connection were contained in
his paper "Rope Driving" (Transactions of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, vol.
XII, 1891), which remained for many years the
best work on the subject. Hunt was an active
member of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers and the author of other papers that
were presented at its meetings (Transactions,
VoJs. XII, XV, XXII, XXIII, XXX). He was
vice-president in 1892 and president in 1898.
He was married twice: on Jan. 24,1868, to Fran-
ces Martha Bush and on July i, 1889, to Kath-
erine Humphrey. He died on Staten Island,
N.Y.

[Trans. Am. Soc. Meek. Engineers, vol. XXXIII
(1912) ; Proc. Am, Inst. Electrical Engineers, vol. XXX
(1911); Engineering News, Apr. 6, 1911; Who's Who
in N. Y.t 1911; Who's Who in America, 1910-11; C. H.
Weygant, The Sacketts in America (1907); Brooklyn
Daily Eagle, Mar. 28, 1911.] F. A.T.

HUNT, FREEMAN (Mar. 21, i8o+-Mar. 2,
1858), publisher and editor, born in Quincy,
Mass., was a descendant of Enoch Hunt of
Bucks County, England, who came to America
and settled In Weymouth, Mass., some time be-
fore 1652, and the youngest child of Nathan and
Mary (Turner) Hunt. His father, a ship-builder
by trade, died when Freeman was three years
old. He was only twelve when he left home for
Boston to become an office boy for the Boston
Evening Gazette. After learning the printer's
trade, he entered the employ of the American
Traveller, afterward called the Boston Daily
Traveller. Somewhat later the editor, in tracing
the source of some commendable anonymous con-
tributions, found to his surprise that they were
written by his young workman, Hunt; thereafter,
the lad's worth received recognition by rapid ad-
vancement. In 1828, however, he decided to go
into the publishing business with John Putnam,
and under the firm name of Putnam & Hunt they
continued the publication of the Juvenile Miscel-
lany, edited by Lydia Maria Child [$.?.]. The
firm also furthered the candidacy of Jackson by
publishing a newspaper, the Jackson Republican,
a sheet which did not long survive; it issued the
first woman's magazine of any consequence in
the United States, the Ladies? Magazine, begun
m January 1828; and in 1830 published Ameri-
oağ Anecdotes In two volumes, prepared by Hunt.
The partnership with Putnam dissolved, Hunt
for fee next few years was associated with vari-
ot*s witaes; the Penny Magastme; the estab-
lishment in New York of a short-lived weekly

Hunt

newspaper, the New York Traveller] and the
Boston Bewick Company, composed of authors,
artists, printers, and booksellers united for the
purpose of cooperative publishing, whose maga-
zine, the American Magazine of Useful and En-
tertaining Knowledge, Hunt for a time edited.
Later, in New York, Freeman Hunt & Com-
pany brought out, among other books, Letters
about the Hudson River and Its Vicinity (1836),
which went through at least three editions.

Thus far in his career, Hunt's son says, he
had felt "a certain dissatisfaction with what he
had accomplished, and a desire to do something
in a literary way beyond merely transient and
occasional writing, and which might prove of
lasting benefit to his fellow man" (Freeman
Hunt, Jr., post, p. 202). After a survey of the
periodical literature of the day, he saw an open-
ing for a magazine in a field as yet untouched.
There was not, he discovered, a single magazine
to represent the claims of commerce. According-
ly, with the encouragement and financial aid of
friends, and the energetic exercise of his own
business ability, he established a periodical of
this character. It was known as the Merchants'
Magazine and Commercial Review until 1850,
and from then until 1860, when the original name
was resumed, as Huntfs Merchants' Magazine.
For nineteen years his time and energies were
largely concentrated upon the development of
this child of his brain. He even directed it from
his bedside during his last sickness, and when
the March 1858 number was placed in his hand
the day before he died, he smiled and remarked:
"This work has been my hobby in life and my
hobby in death" (Ibid., post, p. 206). He also
published during this later period, Lives of
American Merchants (2 vols., 1858), and Wealth
and Worth, a Collection of Maxims, Morals and
Miscellanies for Merchants and Men of Business
(1850), He was always interested in politics
and, good New Englander that he was, strongly
favored the abolition of slavery. His disposition
was kindly, he was diligent in business, and keen-
ly sympathetic with those struggling against ob-
stacles. He had his own personal obstacle to
struggle against in a "foible for drink" (New
York Times, Mar. 4, 1858). He was married,
first, May 6, 1829, to Lucia Weld Blake, who
died ten months later; second, Jan. 2, 1831, to
Laura Faxon Phinney, who died in 1851; and
third, October 1853, to Elizabeth Thompson Par-
menter.

[Freeman Hunt, Jr., in Memorial Jtiogs. of the New-
Mnff. historic Geneal. Soc.f vol. Ill (1883); T. B.
Wyman, Gened. of the Name and Family of Hunt
(1862-63) ; F. L. Mott, A Hist, of Am. Magazines,
; Hunt's Merchants* Mag., Apr. 1858;

384