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John Hunt Painter (September 3, 1819 – April 9, 1891) was a Quaker farmer living near Springdale, Iowa, who sent the firearms to abolitionist John Brown that were used during Brown's historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. John Hunt Painter was an early settler of Pasadena, California where, in 1888, he erected the La Pintoresca ("The Picturesque") hotel, a local landmark. In 1889 he was a pallbearer at the Pasadena funeral of Owen Brown, whom he knew from Iowa.

In 1849, John Hunt Painter moved to his farm near Springdale, a small Quaker community in Cedar County, Iowa.

References and notes

1. Aurner, p. 424:
   "Shortly before Brown's last departure from the Quaker settlement he sold such plunder as mules, harness, wagons, etc. In such business John H. Painter, then a justice of the peace, was made the trusted assistant. It was Painter who, after Brown had gone, shipped the latter's Sharpe's rifles and revolvers — 196 in all — marked carpenter's tools. They were billed from West Liberty to Harper's Ferry to some unknown party."
2. "Death, funeral and life highlights of Owen Brown"
3. Lord, Jeannette Mather (1959): "John Brown: they had a concern"
4. Hunt, p. 83:
   "John Hunt Painter, David's first son, born with twin sister Phoebe, on home farm near Salem, Ohio, September 3, 1819. Married Edith Dean of New Garden, Ohio, May 4, 1842. She was born August 5, 1821, and died at Pasadena, California, July 20, 1899. He died at same place, April 9, 1891, and both were interred. They resided at Salem, Ohio, Springdale and Muscatine, Iowa, and, until their death, at Pasadena, where they had taken up residence in 1881 and where he had purchased some 2,000 acres of land on a part of which a large part of Pasadena is built. They were farmers until they went to California, when he engaged in developing land tracts and in real estate business. In 1887-8 he erected at Pasadena the commodious hotel, 'La Pintoresca.' They were by birthright members of the Society of Friends."
5. Reid, pp. 342–343
6. Valentine, Maggie (1984): "Flowers of Marengo"
7. Richman, Irving B. (1897). John Brown among the Quakers, and other sketches. Des Moines, Iowa: Historical Department of Iowa.
8. Richman, Irving B. (1894). John Brown among the Quakers and other sketches. Chicago: R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., pp. 21, 23, 27.
9. Jones, p. 193:
   "A little over a year after his first visit to the Springdale neighborhood, Brown reappeared late in December, 1857—this time with some ten companions and for purposes which he seemed not anxious to have known. The men were lodged with a Quaker, William Maxon , about three miles northeast of the village of Springdale, Brown agreeing to give in exchange for their keep such of his teams or wagons as might seem just and fair. Brown himself was taken into the home of John H. Painter, about a half-mile away; and all were welcomed with that unfeigned hospitality for which the Friends have always been known."

References

• Aurner, Clarence Ray (editor) (1910). A topical history of Cedar County, Iowa. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Volume I.
• Hunt, Charles Cummins (1906). A genealogical history of the Robert and Abigail Pancoast Hunt family. Columbus, Ohio: Champlin Press.
• Jones, Louis Thomas (1914). The Quakers of Iowa. Iowa City: The State Historical Society of Iowa.
• Reid, Hiram Alvin (1895). History of Pasadena. Pasadena: Pasadena History Co., Publishers.
• Wood, J. W. (1917). Pasadena, California. Published by the author.

External links

• "Early Views of Pasadena"
• Find a Grave memorial for John Hunt Painter
• Owen Brown at Pasadena, California

• 1819 births
• 1891 deaths
• American Quakers
• John Brown (abolitionist)
• People from Cedar County, Iowa