The descent of the Hun family in America is traced to Harmen Hun. He resided in Amersfoort, a town in the province of Utrecht, Holland, situated on the Eem river, some twenty-six miles southeast of Amsterdam. He had a son named Thomas, and a daughter called Wendeltie. This fact is set forth in the Notarial Papers (page 103) on record in the office of the clerk of Albany county, New York, wherein she is mentioned as Wendeltie Harmense, or in actuality, Wendeltie, daughter of Harmen Hun, and sister of Thomas.
Thomas Hun had a grandson named Harmen Thomase, who is mentioned in the document above referred to, which reads: "On July 5, 1661, his son Harmen and his wife Catalyntie Berck (spelled Bercx in Pearson's First Settlers of Albany) gave a power of attorney to collect a certain sum of money from Angenitie Cornelisen, of Amsterdam, in Holland, belonging to the aforesaid Catalyntie as an inheritance from the late Tryntje Jansen van Rechter, her mother, late wife of Cornelis Stoffelse Bul, of Amsterdam, and also from her brother, Hendrick Berck, a certain sum on an obligation," dated on March 8, 1656; also, to close up the estate of Wendeltie Harmense (maiden lady), late aunt, or father's sister, of the above-named Harmen Thomase, she being dead at Alckmar, Holland.
(II) Thomas, son of Harmen Hun, resided at Amersfoort, Holland, and had a son named Harmen Thomase. It is not known what other children, if any, he might have had.
(III) Harmen Thomase, son of Thomas Hun, came to this country from Amersfoort, Holland. He married Catalyntie Berck in 1661 (or, Pearson, 1662). She was born in 1625, and was the widow of Dirck Bensingh, (Bensing, Bensen), and the daughter of Cornelis Stoffelse Bul and his wife, Tryntje Janse van Rechter (widow of Samuel Berck), of Amsterdam, Holland. When she married Hun she had had five children by Bensingh. He and his wife made a joint will in 1663, and she died April 14, 1693. Children:
- Weintie, born February 9, 1662, died February 19, 1662.
- Weintie, October 29, 1663; married, September 11, 1692, Rutger Melcherts Van Deusen, son of Melchert and Engeltje (Van Schoenderwoert) Van Deusen.
- Thomas, November 1, 1666, died November 9, 1667.
- Thomas Harmense, see forward.
(IV) Thomas Harmense, son of Harmen Thomase and Catalyntie (Berck) Hun, was born in Beverwyck, New Netherland, (Albany, New York), October 2, 1668, died January 12, 1716, Albany. He married, November 20, 1692, Mayeke (Maaike, Mary) Oothout, daughter of Jan Janse and Hendrickje (Van Ness) Oothout. She died October 14, 1759. Children:
- Catalyntie, born September 4, 1693 (Pearson, baptized September 3, 1693); married, November, 1726, John G. Lansing; died October, 1727.
- Johannes, October 10, 1695, see forward.
- Harmen, November 23, 1697; (Pearson, baptized July 21, 1700); died young.
- Cornelis, June 9, 1700, (Pearson, baptized July 21, 1700).
- Hendrickje, September 12, 1702, (Pearson, baptized August 20, 1702); married, December 20, 1724, Pieter Schuyler.
- Dirck, September 7, (Pearson, September 17), 1704; married Margaret Cornelia Hogan.
- Rutger, March 15 (Pearson, baptized March 16), 1707.
- Adrian, June 15, (Pearson, baptized July 24), 1709; married, August, 1733, Phoebe Smith; died January 11, 1737.
- Harmen, September 15, 1712; married, December 6, 1735, Elsje Lansing.
(V) Johannes, son of Thomas Harmense and Mayeke (Oothout) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, October 10, 1695, died there January 22, 1776, and it has been said that he was buried in the churchyard of the "Middle" Dutch Reformed Church on the south side of Beaver street. It may be that the remains were re-interred there; but it is probable that they were interred, as all men of prominence connected with the Dutch church of that period in Albany were, in the Dutch Church which stood at the intersection of Broadway and State street, (between 1656-1715, of timber, and 1715-1805 of stone) and when it was taken down in 1805, that the street might not be hampered in traffic, the material was employed in the construction of the new church, above referred to, on Beaver street, and the cornerstone of the new edifice laid on April 30, 1806, so that at his death in 1776, it is unlikely that he was buried there directly, although it is shown that his remains were removed from the church lot in 1803, by his grandson, Abraham Hun, to the vault which he had erected on a lot on Chestnut street, between Hawk and Swan streets. When regrading took place, this vault was abandoned, and the bodies therein removed to the Buena Vista farm at Normanskill, reached in 1900, by following Delaware avenue to the creek. The bodies were, about the time of this latter date, reinterred in the Hun lot in the Albany Rural cemetery. He married, May 4, 1725, Anna, daughter of Francis and Elsie (Gansevoort) Winne. She died March, 1759. Children:
- Thomas, born June, 1726, died December 14, 1731.
- Elsie, May 16, 1728, died January 4, 1732.
- Elsie, March 18, 1733; married, May 19, 1757, Philip, son of Johannes Janse and Geertruy (Schuyler) Lansing; eight children.
- Thomas, see forward.
(VI) Thomas (2), son of Johannes and Anna (Winne) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, February 28, 1736, died there November 17, 1802. He was agent for Patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer and was a surveyor. He built a house on the east side of Broadway, (then Market street) fifty feet south of Maiden Lane, demolished in 1845. He married, in Albany, August 27, 1761; the Rev. Eliardus Westerlo officiating, Elizabeth Wendell, born in Albany, September 2, 1738, daughter of Abraham and Geertruy (Bleecker) Wendell. Children, born in Albany:
- Annetje, September 15, 1763, died in Penn Yan, New York, October 17, 1848; married, Albany, May 19, 1795, Rev. John Bassett; five children.
- Abraham, see forward.
(VII) Abraham, son of Thomas (2) and Elizabeth (Wendell) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, February 17, 1768. He died there, January 29, 1812, and was placed in his own vault on Chestnut street, between Hawk and Swan streets. He graduated from Columbia College, immediately afterward took up the study of law, and forming a partnership with Rensselaer Westerlo, half brother of the Patroon of the Van Rensselaer Manor, acted as agent for Stephen Van Rensselaer until his death. He resided in his house on the east side of Market street (later Broadway), which was situated about fifty feet south of Maiden Lane, which site was later built upon when the Stanwix Hall Hotel was erected, and he also owned a well cultivated farm of about three hundred and seventy-five acres extending along and northward back from the Normanskill creek (at the end of Delaware avenue in 1900), which place he called "Buena Vista," after the battle in which General Taylor figured. On the brow of the hill, he built a summer residence, which his son Thomas reconstructed in 1852, at about the same time the farm was reduced to about twenty-five acres. He married, in Albany, September 22, 1796, Rev. John Bassett officiating, Maria, daughter of Judge Leonard and Maria (Van Rensselaer) Gansevoort. She was born in Albany, New York, February 17, 1778, died there, October 19, 1813, and was buried in her husband's vault, as mentioned. Children:
- Elizabeth, born January 13, 1798, died Albany, June 9, 1804.
- Maria, July 23, 1800, died April 1, 1801.
- Elizabeth, July 1, 1804; married, Albany, April 4, 1833, Bernard S. Van Rensselaer; died Albany, July 1, 1834.
- Ann Maria, Albany, October 11, 1807, died October 27, 1807.
- Thomas, see forward.
(VIII) Thomas (3) Hun, M.D., son of Abraham and Maria (Gansevoort) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, September 14, 1808, died at his residence, No. 31 Elk street, Albany, June 23, 1896. Losing both parents an early age, he and his sister Elizabeth were brought up by their maternal grandparents, Judge and Mrs. Leonard Gansevoort, Jr. He received his earliest education as a lad at a private school conducted by an Englishman and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Upfold, and in 1818 entered the Albany Boys' Academy, where he remained until graduation, following a complete course which fitted him for college. He was intelligent and studious, possessing a decided character, which accounted for his always standing high in his various classes. Because of his more than customary preparation and industry, when only sixteen years of age, he was able to enter the junior class of Union College, in the fall of 1824, following his graduation from the Academy, and while there his "chum" was the popular Professor Isaac W. Jackson. He graduated with honors in 1826, taking the degree of A.B. After leaving college, he began the study of medicine, for which he had a decided leaning, and entered the office of Dr. Platt Williams, a practitioner of eminence in Albany. After serving thus as a student, he entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1827, and completing the full course, graduated in 1830 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He returned to Albany and commenced to practice with his former instructor, Dr. Williams.
When the cholera epidemic broke out in the summer of 1832, a cholera hospital was instituted in Albany, and he was appointed one of the physicians. The death rate was alarmingly high, with more funerals each day than could be arranged for, and everyone afraid to mix with his neighbors. Burning barrels of tar filled the atmosphere with a heavy smoke, calculated to purify the air. Dr. Hun's position was unenviable and heroic. He discharged his duties with fortitude and skill, until the closing of the hospital in the cold weather, when the scourge was stamped out. In the spring of 1833 he went to Europe to prosecute his studies further, and excepting two brief visits to his home, remained there, residing chiefly in Paris, until 1839. The six years of foreign study afforded him a liberal range of experience, attending the large hospitals, and he gradually limited his wider range of the sciences to a knowledge of practice.
During his last year abroad, the Albany Medical College was organized and incorporated, and before his return home in 1839, he was invited to accept the professorship of the Institutes of Medicine. He accepted, and his inaugural address excited considerable interest and admiration from its large grasp of principles as well as by reason of its lucid style and forcible illustrations. The students came to regard his lectures as the most interesting and instructive, which ability on his part greatly increased the reputation of the young college. He continued these lectures until 1858, when he resigned to devote all his time to his practice, which had grown to be the best in Albany, and demanded this attention.
When the Albany Hospital was incorporated in 1848, Dr. Hun became one of the board of consulting physicians, and had subsequently held the same position with St. Peter's Hospital, Albany. He was made president of the New York State Medical Society in 1862, and his inaugural address attracted much favorable comment, despite his theories in opposition to the traditional ideas of medical theory and practice. He maintained that neither medicine nor the physician, although both were of importance in their place, ever cured disease; that the curative power rested in nature alone, and the function of the physician not to "cure"; but to preside over, watch and aid the efforts of nature to cure, by recognizing the true character of the disease, its course, its processes and effects, also the accidents and dangers to which it is liable, and thus to be able to secure, as far as possible, such favorable circumstances, aids and conditions as may be most contributory to the restorative powers of nature. He was unanimously called to be dean of faculty of the Albany Medical College. He was especially noted as a practitioner for his sagacity and accuracy in the diagnosis of disease, and also for his calm, far-sighted comprehension of the constitutional tendencies affecting the case called to his attention. He was always studiously inclined, contemplative and given to thought along philosophical and metaphysical lines, for ethical investigation was a delight for him. No physician in Albany ever stood higher in the confidence of both the profession and the public. He was a devout Christian, worshipping at the Episcopal Cathedral of All Saints, a man possessing the warmest of hearts for the distressed. He had been an alderman, and at his death was president of the Albany Academy board of trustees.
Dr. Thomas Hun married, in Albany, New York, April 29, 1841, the Rev. Horatio Potter, rector of St. Peter's Church officiating, Lydia Louisa, daughter of Hon. Marcus Tullius and his (first) wife, Cynthia (Herrick) Reynolds. She was born in Amsterdam, New York, September 11, 1817, died at her residence, No. 31 Elk street, Albany, January 26, 1876, and was buried in the Albany Rural cemetery. Her father, Marcus T. Reynolds, an attorney of Albany and one of the ablest of his times, was born in Minaville, Montgomery county, New York, December 29, 1788, son of Dr. Stephen Reynolds, of Amsterdam, and died at No. 25 North Pearl street, Albany, July 11, 1864. Her mother, Cynthia (Herrick) Reynolds, was daughter of Benjamin and Cynthia (Brush) Herrick, the latter a daughter of Richard Brush; she was born at Amenia, New York, December 26, 1794, died at Amsterdam, New York, November 25, 1820. Benjamin Herrick was the son of Benjamin and Sarah (Denton) Herrick. Mrs. Thomas Hun was widely known through her endeavors to alleviate the condition of the poor and ignorant, as well as in her own circle, where she was welcomed as one whose mind had been enriched by a liberal education and by life-long habits of good reading and reflection, which gave her a graciousness of character and brilliancy of conversation. Her chief interest lay in planning to reform what was evil and to aid those oppressed by undue hardships, in which aim she was always practical in the carrying out of her admirable ideas. She felt that the poor needed, even more than money, sound advice and cordial encouragement. She purchased and fitted up a sort of model tenement house, to occupy which became an esteemed privilege, and here she watched over them, inculcating habits of neatness and saving. She also sought to establish in the neighborhood of the poor reading rooms and a place of cheerful resort. In many other similar ways she led a worthy life and died blessed by every one who had the benefit of her acquaintance.
Children of Dr. Thomas and Lydia Louisa (Reynolds) Hun, born in Albany:
- Edward Reynolds, born April 17, 1842, see forward.
- Marcus Tullius, May 22, 1845, see forward.
- Leonard Gansevoort, May 10, 1848, see forward.
- John, June 10, 1852, died in Albany, August 16, 1852.
- Henry, March 21, 1854, see forward.
(IX) Edward Reynolds Hun, M.D., eldest son of Dr. Thomas (3) and Lydia Louisa (Reynolds) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, April 17, 1842, died in Stamford, Connecticut, March 14, 1880. He received his early education at the Albany Boys' Academy, which he entered in the fall of 1850. He also attended boarding-school at Sing Sing, (Ossining) New York, and at Byfield, Massachusetts. He went to Harvard and graduated in the class of 1863, then studied medicine in the Albany Medical College, and followed this with the regular course in medicine of Columbia University, where he graduated in 1866. He visited Europe, studying in London and Paris in the large hospitals. an returning to his home, he engaged in general practice. He was chosen a member the Albany Medical College faculty in 1867, and was elected a member of the American Medical Association in 1870, and of the Medical Society of the State of New York in 1873, elected its secretary in 1875; of the New York Society of Neurology and Electrology, in 1873; the New York Neurological Society, in 1874; the American Neurological Society, in 1876, and in 1875 was elected to the chair of nervous diseases in the Albany Medical College. He translated Bouchard's Secondary Degeneration of the Spinal Cord, in 1869, and was the author of Trichina Spiralis, in 1869; The Pulse of the Insane, 1870, and Haematoma Auris, in 1870; also contributing valuable scientific matter along lines of his investigation to a number of medical journals. From 1869 until his death, he was the attending physician at St. Peter's Hospital, and from 1876, at the Albany Hospital. He was special pathologist to the New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, New York, for several years.
From the outset of his professional life, he had an unusually large and responsible practice, and rose rapidly to professional prominence. He was greatly interested in the advance of medicine and in new scientific methods and appliances. He possessed unusual qualities of mind, and great quickness of perception in detecting the characteristics of disease. His nature was an ardent and sympathetic one. Some years before his death he met with a serious accident while driving on the Troy road with Mr. Dean Sage, and from that time his health gradually failed. He suffered a stroke of apoplexy while recreating at Stamford, Connecticut, March 14, 1880.
Dr. Edward Reynolds Hun married, at Troy, New York, April 29, 1874, Caroline De Forest, daughter of John B. Gale (son of Samuel and Mary E. (Thompson) Gale) and Elizabeth V. S. Wells (daughter of Philander and Elizabeth (McDonald) Wells); she was born in Troy, December 27, 1848. Children:
- Lydia Louise, born in Albany, New York, July 8, 1875; married, Albany, April 29, 1903, Frederick Williams Kelley, son of James B. and Alice (Williams) Kelley, who was born in Albany, December 15, 1870; children:
- Alice Williams Kelley, born, Albany, November 26, 1904, and
- Frederick Williams Kelley, born, Albany, January 18, 1908.
- Elizabeth Gale, Albany, November 5, 1876, died, Albany, October 15, 1889.
- John Gale, Albany, November 21, 1877; married, Westfield, Massachusetts, June 26, 1906, Leslie Stafford, daughter of Rev. Lyndon Smith and Susan Van Vranken (Doolittle) Crawford, born in Smyrna, Turkey, May 1, 1881; children:
- Leslie Crawford Hun, born, Princeton, New Jersey, October 21, 1907, and
- Elizabeth Gale Hun, born, Albany, July 9, 1909.
- Katharine, born, Stamford, Connecticut, January 21, 1880; married, Albany, April 29, 1907, William Law Learned Peltz, son of John De Witt and Mary Marvin (Learned) Peltz, born in Albany, May 27, 1882; children:
- Caroline Peltz, born Albany, February 19, 1908, and
- William Learned Peltz, born, Albany, February 11, 1909.
(IX) Marcus Tullius, second son of Dr. Thomas (3) and Lydia Louise (Reynolds) Hun, was born in the house on the southeast corner of North Pearl street and Maiden Lane, Albany, New York, May 22, 1845. He attended a school on the east side of North Pearl street above Clinton avenue, kept by a Mrs. Williams, until he became of sufficient age to enter the Albany Academy, where he remained until the fall of the year 1859, when he was entered as a student at Dummer Academy, Byfield (near Newburyport), Massachusetts, under Professor Henshaw. He remained at Dummer Academy for one term, at the end of which Professor Henshaw gave up the charge of the school. Mr. Hun then returned to Albany and attended the remainder of that year at the Albany Academy. In the fall of 1860 Mr. Hun entered a school at Lancaster, Massachusetts, kept by a Mr. Kimball, with whom he boarded. He remained at that school for one year, and in the fall of 1861 entered Union College, Schenectady, from which he was graduated in the summer of 1865. In the fall of 1865 he entered the Albany Law School, from which institution he was graduated in the spring of 1866. He then passed his examination before the examiners appointed by the supreme court and was admitted to the bar. He entered the office of Meads & Reynolds as a law student and after some two years became a partner with Orlando Meads, and, under the firm name of Meads & Hun continued the practice of the law in partnership with Mr. Meads until 1872, when the partnership was dissolved, and the same year he formed a copartnership with his younger brother, Leonard G. Hun. In January, 1872, Mr. Hun was appointed deputy attorney general by General Francis C. Barlow. For the ensuing two years he acted as deputy attorney general, at the same time continuing the private practice of the law with his brother. He retired from the attorney general's office at the expiration of the term of General Barlow, December 31, 1873. Russell M. Johnston was afterwards admitted into this firm, and subsequently the Hon. Learned Hand. In 1902 Mr. Hun formed a new copartnership with his son-in-law, Lewis R. Parker, under the firm name of Hun & Parker, and to this firm, Thomas Hun, son of Marcus T. Hun, was subsequently, in 1909, admitted as a member.
Mr. Hun was appointed in January, 1874, by the governor, secretary of state and attorney general, reporter of the supreme court, pursuant to chapter 99 of the laws of 1869, in the place of Abraham Lansing, resigned. Immediately on his appointment he prepared and, submitted to the justices and presented to the legislature, a bill, by the provisions of which the power to appoint a reporter of that court was given to its justices. This bill was opposed in the legislature and defeated, although apparently required by section 23 of article VI. of the constitution of the state. The next year (1875) the bill was again presented to the legislature and passed, conferring this power of appointment of its reporter upon the justices of the supreme court. In March, 1874, (not having been able to secure the passage of the bill presented by him to the legislature that year) Mr. Hun began the publication of the series of supreme court reports, seven volumes of which had been edited by his predecessor, Abraham Lansing. In June, 1875, he was appointed reporter of the supreme court by the justices of the several general terms of that court pursuant to the provisions of the law chapter 131, of the laws of 1875, the passage of which had been secured by him. At the end of consecutive terms of office of five years he was reappointed by the justices first of the general terms of the supreme court and subsequently by the justices of the appellate divisions of the supreme court, and continued the publication of the reports until the fall of 1905, (publishing in all 200 volumes of these reports) at which time, Mr. Hun declining a reappointment, Jerome B. Fisher was appointed reporter in his place, at a convention of the justices, held at the city of Albany, October 24, 1905. At this convention resolutions were adopted by the justices in reference to Mr. Hun's retirement, which are published in volume 108 of the appellate division reports.
In party politics Mr. Hun, while an earnest Abolitionist during the civil war, never took any active part. The conditions which attended party management were not acceptable to him. He was, however, always largely interested in public affairs and in procuring a decent and honest administration of them. The conditions which prevailed in the government of the city and county of Albany in the seventies were very scandalous, and with a view to the establishment of a better condition of affairs a Citizens' Association was organized by him, the executive committee of which was known as the committee of thirteen. The creation of this Citizens' Association arose out of an action brought by him in February, 1878, to enjoin the payment by the city of Albany of a fraudulent claim presented against the city for alleged work done upon the building on the southwest corner of South Pearl and Howard streets in that city. In this litigation of Anthony Bleecker Banks, Erastus Corning, Henry H. Martin, J. Howard King, Thomas W. Olcott, Franklin Townsend, John H. Van Antwerp, Frederick Townsend, Charles B. Lansing and Matthew Hale against Nathan D. Wendell and others, he was successful at the trial term and on the appeal to the general term of the supreme court, and prevented the payment of the claim by the city. The favorable outcome of this action gave encouragement to many of the citizens of Albany, some of whom had been plaintiffs in that action, to organize an association which prosecuted for a period of some ten years a very earnest and arduous work of establishing a better system of administration in Albany city and county. Indeed prior to that time it is hardly an exaggeration to say that there existed no system under which the taxpayers had any adequate redress for the wrongdoing of public officials. After ten years of very strenuous effort, the procuring of much remedial legislation, and the carrying on of much litigation, during which the public were kept advised of public conditions by annual reports made by the committee of thirteen, narrating the wrongdoings and their remedies, the city and county administration was effectively purified. These annual reports, copies of which can be found in the state library at Albany, are an interesting recital of what can be done by citizens, who hold no public office and have no political influence, by a persistent recital to the public of the evils of party mismanagement. On May 30, 1885, Mr. Hun was presented with a service of silver by the citizens of Albany for his gratuitous services in this work. An account of the presentation appears in the Albany Evening Journal of that date. In the final outcome of this movement the political complexion of the city was changed by the permanent substitution of a Republican for a Democratic majority. The committee of thirteen still (1910) retains its organization and exercises a supervision over the affairs of the city and county, and on occasions represents a gathering point for the expression of public opinion.
This work in which Mr. Hun occupied the most prominent part was a signal service to the city in which he and his ancestors had resided for six generations. Mr. Hun was a director of the New York State National Bank for a quarter of a century, and a trustee of the Albany Trust Company for several years. In the fall of 1909 he was elected president of the Albany Savings Bank, of which institution he had been for many years a trustee. On his election to the presidency of the Albany Savings Bank, in view of the fact that that hank carried very large deposits of money in other financial institutions of the city, he thought it proper to resign his positions in the State Bank and in the Albany Trust Company. Mr. Hun was originally a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. When Dr. William C. Doane was elected bishop of Albany, he followed the bishop and became a member of the Cathedral of All Saints, in the chapter of which he succeeded his father, Thomas Hun, on the latter's retirement therefrom.
Marcus T. Hun married, in Albany, New York, December 21, 1875, Mary Keith Van der Poel, born in Albany, November 26, 1854, daughter of Isaac Van der Poel, son of James and Anna (Doll) Van der Poel, born May 7, 1821, died in Albany, December 28, 1868, and Susan (Foster) Van der Poel, daughter of Adams and Mary (Keith) Foster, born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1832, died in Albany, October 11, 1907. Mrs. Hun's parents were married May 14, 1850. Children, born in Albany:
- Ellen Van der Poel, born February 25, 1877; married, Albany, October 18, 1902, Lewis Rathbone Parker, son of General Amasa Junius and Cornelia Kane (Strong) Parker, born in Albany, November 30, 1870; children:
- Lewis Rathbone Parker, born, Albany, October 19, 1904, and
- Ellen Parker, born, Albany, May 20 1907.
- Mary Van der Poel, April 2, 1882.
- Thomas, October 28, 1883.
- Susan Van der Poel, April 29, 1888; married, Albany, February 20, 1909, Stephen Carlton Clark, son of Alfred Corning, and Elizabeth (Scriven) Clark, born at Cooperstown; Otsego county, New York, August 29, 1882; child, Elizabeth Scriven Clark, born at New York City, November 24, 1909.
- Elsie Gansevoort, July 10, 1896.
(IX) Leonard Gansevoort, son of Dr. Thomas (3) and Lydia Louisa (Reynolds) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, May 10, 1848, died in Boston, Massachusetts, March 11, 1891. His early education was received at the Albany Boys' Academy, which he entered in the fall of 1856, and from there went to Union College, but before completing the course left the college to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point. He made a brilliant record there, and was graduated second in the class of 1868. He excelled the leader in all studies excepting one, drawing, which reduced his average a single point below his competitor's standing. He was assigned to duty at Fort Warren. After two years of military life, he resigned from the army to return to Albany, and entered the law office of Orlando Meads and Marcus T. Hun, his elder brother. After reading law there, he was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice at No. 25 North Pearl street, the firm being known as M. T. & L. G. Hun, Orlando Meads, Esq., having retired from practice. His early life was passed among the best influences, and the intellectual tendencies which he inherited were assisted and enlarged by close application to books and by persistent, almost a relentless, determination to master the subject in hand. The logical and mathematical character of his mind was entirely suited to a semi-exact science like the law, and at an early period in his legal career he had won high appreciation of his legal attainments. His practice was considerable although he was averse to the hurry and struggle of the trial courts. In the appellate courts however, he was very successful, and the large interests entrusted to his care proved the confidence reposed in his ability. He was a man of high ambitions in his profession, and studied law as a science; was familiar with international law, and gave up much time to the consideration of the Roman law, of which he gathered together a very considerable library. In politics, although a Republican in convictions, he reserved the right of independent judgment. His public interest centered chiefly in the improvement of the conduct of civil affairs, mainly along lines of honesty and economy. He was appointed on the commission having charge of the erection of the new City Hall in 1881. He was much interested in charitable undertakings and devoted both time and money liberally, towards their advancement and support. He was attorney for the Watervliet Turnpike & Railway Company, the New York State National Bank, the Albany Savings Bank and the Albany Insurance Company; was legal adviser of James Barclay Jermain and trustee for several large estates. He traveled extensively abroad; was a lover of art, and a collector of fine books. He was a member of the Cathedral of All Saints. He went to Boston March 5, 1891, to seek benefit from medical specialists, and died suddenly on the 11th, at Somerville, Massachusetts. He was buried in the Albany cemetery.
(IX) Henry Hun, M.D., son of Dr. Thomas (3) and Lydia Louisa (Reynolds) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, March 21, 1854. He entered the Albany Boys' Academy in the fall of 1865 and graduated from it in 1870. He next attended the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, and graduated in 1874, after which from the Harvard Medical College in 1879. He then spent two years studying medicine in Europe, after which he returned to Albany, where he has since practiced the profession of medicine. He has been Professor of Diseases of the Nervous System in the Albany Medical College since 1883, and has written many papers and pamphlets on medical subjects. He is president of the board of trustees of the Albany Academy. Henry Hun married, Albany, April 28, 1892, Lydia Marcia, daughter of Hon. Samuel and Lydia Coit (Learned) Hand, born Albany, February 1, 1864. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Hun, born in Albany:
- Henry Hand, November 18, 1893.
- Katrina de Wandelaer, January 26, 1895, died, Albany, February 14, 1895.
- Lydia Marcia, March 8, 1897.
- Samuel, February 20, 1900.