John Hunton papers, 1858-1973

John Hunton, Wyoming pioneer, bull team freighter, cattleman, and longtime Fort Laramie area settler, was born 18 January 1839 in Madison County, Virginia. He was the son of Patrick and Elizabeth (Carpenter) Hunton. When he turned 18 he volunteered as a soldier and saw duty at Harper's Ferry in 1859. He fought in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, serving in General George Pickett's division at Gettysburg.

In the spring of 1867, Hunton, along with many other disillusioned southerners, emigrated westward. He drove one of twenty-five mule teams from Nebraska City to Fort Laramie for Seth Ward, sutler at the fort. He was then employed as a clerk and general aid in the store. During the winter of 1867 Hunton shared a room with the famous government scout Jim Bridger. During this time Fort Laramie was the premier army outpost on the Plains, designed not only to supply and protect the thousands of emigrants heading over the Oregon Trail, but to deal with the numerous Plains Indian tribes which were seen as a threat to the increasing number of white homesteaders. Hunton traded with Indians and remained sympathetic to their plights, even after his brother Jim Hunton was killed by Indians in 1876. Another brother, Thomas Hunton, lived in the Wheatland area with his wife, Mora.

In 1870 Hunton received a contract to supply Fort Laramie with wood. During the next ten years his government contracts steadily expanded into a large business. He also supplied hay, beef, charcoal, and other freight to military posts such as Fort Fetterman, Fort Steele, Fort Phil Kearny, Fort Reno, and Fort C.F. Smith. Hunton opened a road ranch at Bordeaux, south of Wheatland, in 1871. Many travelers stopped at Bordeaux for food and shelter on their way to the Black Hills. Hunton also became half owner, in partnership with W.G. Bullock, of the "SO" cattle herd. This herd was the first in the area aside from work oxen.

For most of the 1870s John Hunton's companion was a French-Indian woman, Eulalie (Lallee) Garnier, the sister of Hunton's friend Baptiste "Little Bat" Garnier, an army scout. Little is known about Lallee or why she and Hunton separated in 1877. When Hunton returned to his native Virginia in the winter of 1881, he met Blanche Taylor, half his age, whom he married and brought back to Wyoming with him. Although the marriage was strained by their differences in age and temperament, she remained at his side for the rest of his life.

By the mid-1880s John Hunton had become one of the Territory's most prominent citizens. He opened a hotel at Bordeaux in 1887 and was elected Laramie County commissioner. He had large holdings in both land and cattle, but the era of the great cattle barons came to an end after the disastrous winter of 1886-87. Hunton and his contemporaries lost much of their money and holdings, and Hunton was plagued by a mountain of debts he could not pay. In 1889, he returned to Fort Laramie to become post trader. This position ended, however, when the fort was abandoned in 1890.

Hunton continued to live in Fort Laramie for many years. He was a United States Commissioner from 1892-1907, a volunteer weather observer for the Weather Department, and a civil engineer, surveying uncharted wilderness area in north central and western Wyoming. Later he and Blanche moved to Torrington, where he died on 4 September 1928 at the age of 89. He is buried in Cheyenne.