'William Henry Hunt' (
November 5,
1857–
February 4,
1949) was a state and federal judge and a territorial governor of
Puerto Rico.
Hunt was born in
New Orleans, Louisiana in 1857. He did not go to a law school, but instead read law in 1880 and immediately began a private practice at
Fort Benton in the
Montana Territory. In a year, he was supplementing his private practice with a position as collector of customs for both the
Idaho and Montana Territories. He added yet another item to his professional plate as he was a member of the Montana Constitutional Convention of 1884. In 1885, he gave up his position a collector of customs to become attorney general of the Montana Territory. In 1887, he gave up both his private practice and his position as territorial attorney general.
When
Montana became a state in 1889, Hunt briefly served as a member of the state legislature before becoming a judge of the First Montana State Judicial District later that year. In 1894, he was promoted to Justice of the
Montana Supreme Court.
In 1900, Hunt was appointed by President
William McKinley to be the Secretary of Puerto Rico. A year later, he was promoted to the Governorship of Puerto Rico, succeeding
Charles Herbert Allen. Hunt served as Governor of Puerto Rico for three years, from
September 15,
1901 to
July 4, 1904.
Hunt returned to his role as a judge when
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the bench of the
United States District Court for the District of Montana on
April 14,
1904; Hunt was confirmed five days later. On
March 30,
1910, Hunt became an associate judge of the
United States Court of Customs Appeals. Then, on
December 12,
1910, Hunt was nominated by President
William Howard Taft to the newly created
United States Commerce Court. He was confirmed on
January 31,
1911. The Commerce Court was abolished a little less than three years later, on
December 13,
1913. Nonetheless, as a judge of the Commerce Court, Hunt was also an at-large judge of the
United States courts of appeals and remained in that position once the Commerce Court was abolished. The
Chief Justice of the United States,
Edward Douglass White, assigned Hunt to the
Ninth Circuit.
On
January 31,
1928, Hunt, still assigned to the Ninth Circuit, assumed
senior status. Ten months later, Hunt retired from federal service on
November 30,
1928. Hunt went back to private practice, this time in
San Francisco, California. He retired from his private practice in 1942. Hunt died in 1949.
References
★
Judges of the United States Courts