John Hunn (governor)
| John Hunn | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 51st Governor of Delaware | |
|
In office January 15, 1901 – January 17, 1905 |
|
| Lieutenant | Philip L. Cannon |
| Preceded by | Ebe W. Tunnell |
| Succeeded by | Preston Lea |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
June 23, 1849 Odessa, Delaware |
| Died | September 1, 1926 (aged 77) Camden, Delaware |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Cowgill Emerson |
| Residence | Camden, Delaware |
| Occupation | businessman |
John Hunn (June 23, 1849 – September 1, 1926) was an American businessman and politician from Camden, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party who served as Governor of Delaware.
Hunn was born near Odessa, Delaware, son of John and Mary Swallow Hunn. He married Sarah Cowgill Emerson in 1874 and they had one child, Alice. They lived at 3 South Main Street in Camden and were members of the Camden Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers.
Hunn's father, also John Hunn, was a noted abolitionist and chief engineer of the Underground Railroad in Delaware. Shortly after the younger John's birth, the family lost their New Castle County farm, "Happy Valley," in a sheriff's sales because of fines assessed for helping runaway slaves. They then went to live with family at Magnolia, Delaware.
The younger Hunn, known as "Honest John", grew up at Magnolia and Port Royal, South Carolina, where his father was working with the Freedmen's Bureau. In 1876 he returned to Delaware, permanently settled at Camden, Delaware and began operating a merchandized fruit, lumber, and lime business in nearby Wyoming. He maintained this business throughout his life.
At the turn of the twentieth century Delaware was going through a political transformation. Most obvious to the public was the unprecedented division in the Republican Party caused, in part, by the ambitions of J. Edward "Gas" Addicks for a seat in the U.S. Senate. A gas company industrialist, he spent vast amounts of his own fortune to build a Republican Party, primarily for that purpose. Largely successful in heavily Democratic Kent County and Sussex County, he financed the organization of a faction that came to be known as the "Union Republicans." Meanwhile, he was making bitter enemies of the New Castle County "Regular Republicans," who considered him nothing more than a carpetbagger from Philadelphia.
Behind the headlines, however, all the effort was making obvious the archaic and corrupt practices that characterized elections and the resultant state government. This caused a consensus to develop that major reform was needed in all areas of state government, but especially in voting procedures, apportionment, and the assignment of various responsibilities to the governor, legislature, and judiciary. The result of the all this was the Constitution of 1897 and the return of two-party politics to Delaware. It also created a statewide, moderately progressive, Republican Party, which become a statewide majority, particularly after the 1905 end of the highly personal Addicks controversy.
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