Gov. George W. P. Hunt with his daughter Virginia at the Governor’s Mansion at 1679 E. McDowell.

On Christmas Eve, 1934, the first, and seven-time governor of Arizona died at home at 1679 E. McDowell in Phoenix. That morning, at around 10:30, he was deciding the menu for Christmas dinner with his daughter, Mrs. Virginia Brannan. A short time later he was dead from a combination of heart disease, uremia, and diabetes.
George Wylie Paul Hunt was born in Huntsville, Mo., on Nov. 1, 1859. Huntsville was named after his grandfather who established the town. It was reported that he left Huntsville in the late 1870s when he rebelled against his parents’ wishes to become a physician. He prospected for a couple of years in Colorado and arrived in Arizona in 1881, “…prodding before him a burrow which carried all his worldly belongings.”
Perhaps as another small rebellion, Hunt always signed his name as Geo. W. P. Hunt. George was never spelled out, but always abbreviated. Hunt always told reporters to use the abbreviation.
He settled in the booming town of Globe in 1881 with the ambition of growing with the West. He started as a mucker in the mines, washing dishes in a restaurant, and finally became a waiter in a restaurant. Years later, when he was running for governor, Hunt ran into a prospector who he used to wait on in the restaurant.
The man said, “I will never vote for him for governor — he used to wait on me.”
“Do you remember me≠” Hunt asked.
“Yes, I do. You used to wait on me.”
“I was a pretty good waiter, wasn’t I≠”
“Yes.”
“Well, I will make just as good a governor”’
Before becoming governor, Hunt was Globe’s first mayor. He went on to serve two terms as Gila County treasurer in the 1890s. He served terms in the upper and lower house of the Arizona Territorial Assembly. In 1910, he was elected to serve Gila County at the constitutional convention for the state of Arizona. At the convention, he was elected the presiding officer and took a leading role in drafting the Constitution of the state of Arizona.
While in the territorial Legislature, Hunt took great pride in the fact that he curbed the old-time saloons in the state. “Under his leadership laws were passed prohibiting women in saloons, eliminating gambling, and increasing the license fees of saloons.”
As a child in Missouri, books were not provided to school children. Hunt had to borrow or buy school books for his education. He was very proud of the fact that he was able to achieve the provision of free textbooks for the children of Arizona.
Governor Hunt removed stripes from the prison garb of Arizona convicts. He also had prisoners begin building roads throughout the state. In an address to the Legislature, he said, “I am gratified at the results of my prison policy. I have found that a prisoner’s sense of honor, when put to the test, is a more effective guard than a man with a rifle. It is a new principle of penology that a man reforms only as he is trusted and made to rely upon himself.”
Hunt was president of a national anti-capital punishment league. At one point, Arizona abolished capital punishment, but it was reinstated a short time later. During the 11th Legislature, he fathered legislation that abolished the use of the gallows and substituted the lethal gas chamber.
On Dec. 28, 1934, the body of Governor Hunt lay in state for five hours over the great seal at the State Capitol. Thousands of citizens from around the state came to pay their respects to one of the founders of Arizona. An account of the scene from a newspaper at the time described it like this: “To the capitol came old men, young women and children, city men, farmers, miners, cowpunchers — all the strata of humanity George W. P. Hunt knew and loved…Miners in corduroys, cowboys in overalls and the wide felt hats of the range, respectfully carried in hand, mingled indiscriminately with those of more conventional dress as the silent throng filed in and out. Many sun-squinted eyes and weather-beaten cheeks were wet… At last the mourners all had passed. Silvery bugle notes of ‘taps’ rose in the rotunda. Sabers clicked and the honor guard paced slowly as the casket passed for the last time between the capitol’s stone columns…,
“…Truly, then, George W. P. Hunt was gone.”
— Mike Miller. Photo courtesy of Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, Archives Division, Phoenix, #01-3585.