The Patron Saint

One of the two reasons our son is named Nathan is for Nathan Hunt and what he stood for.  (The other reason is the Hebrew meaning of Nathan is gift from God.)  This photo is on the campus at Guilford College (founded in 1837) where I participated in a forum on Friday as an alumnus.  Here is probably more than you want to know about Nathan Hunt.    10 Oct. 1758 – 8 Aug. 1853
Nathan Hunt, Quaker leader, itinerant minister, and principal founder of the New Garden Boarding School (now Guilford College), was born in the New Garden community (now within the limits of Greensboro), the son of Sarah Mills and William Hunt, a Friends minister. Nathan Hunt characterized his heritage "as a very ancient British family with some Scotch and some Welsh blood in it."  Around the time of the Battle of Guilford Court House in 1781, the Hunt farm was victimized by foragers from both the American and British armies. All of the horses, one cow, and other resources were seized, leaving the family almost destitute. After the battles on New Garden Road and at Guilford Court House, a large number of the most seriously wounded from both armies were left at New Garden Meeting House and scattered among homes in the community.  Hunt fought the institution of slavery as boldly as he had confronted smallpox. At the time, public bitterness against abolitionists was strong in Guilford County and some were attacked by mobs. Despite the risks, he spoke out forcefully against slavery, even in the presence of a slaveholding governor of North Carolina.  For nearly two hundred years itinerant Quaker ministers, both men and women, fanned out continuously to Quaker meetings in the British Isles and in the Western Hemisphere. Their ministry furnished the lifeblood of the Society of Friends and kept the meetings alive. Nathan Hunt was one of the ablest. Recorded as a minister at age thirty-five, he visited nearly all the meetings in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. While in Glasgow, Scotland, he preached to an audience of more than four thousand people—among them the Russian ambassador and his wife and attendants. He also carried his Christian message to Indian tribes in the United States and Canada. His travels often kept him away from his family for several months at a time.