Richard Pell Hunt moved to Waterloo, NY in 1821 at the age of 24, an active Quaker and intrepid businessman. By 1850, he was the richest man in Waterloo.
He married several times before his death in 1856: Ann Underhill, Matilda Kendig, Sarah McClintock, and Jane Clothier Master. He had three children with Sarah M'Clintock: Richard M. Hunt, Mary M. Hunt, and Sarah M. Hunt. He had four children with Jane Master: William Master Hunt, Jane Master Hunt, George Truman Hunt, and Anna Hunt (although Anna died at birth).
Richard Pell Hunt was a prime investor and Secretary of the Waterloo Woolen Factory. He built the Hunt Block and two other blocks in Waterloo's downtown business district. He was involved in much of Waterloo's economic and commercial development. The Hunts were extremely prosperous.
Jane Clothier Master Hunt was born in Philadelphia before marrying Richard Pell Hunt. Many of the Quakers in Waterloo had moved there from Philadelphia.
Jane offered the Hunts' home for a visit from Lucretia Mott, who brought along her sister Martha Wright (of Auburn, NY). They were also joined by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Ann M'Clintock. The women decided to plan a meeting "for protest and discussion," and thus was arranged the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention for Women's Suffrage.
The Hunts, like other Quakers in the area, were abolitionists. Richard Pell Hunt offered his carriage house as part of the Underground Railroad. The Hunts managed their woolen textile factory as a boycott of slave-labor cotton.
