Dr. C.W. Hunt was born in 1854 in Raleigh, NC. In 1880 at age 26 he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, MD. That same year he purchased 2.25 acres of land in Transylvania County, NC and began his medical practice in Brevard. In 1886 Dr. Hunt married Henrietta Porcher Anderson. They had three daughters: Henrietta, Margaret and Nannie, and two sons: David and Charles Jr.

Per family lore, Dr. Hunt was the first doctor to practice in Transylvania County and was the first doctor in Western NC to use anesthesia and perform an appendectomy. And unusual for this era in American history, his patients also included African Americans and Native Americans.

Dr. Hunt prioritized the region’s health at a time when there were very limited medical resources for rural areas. For Dr. Hunt disease prevention was the key. He wrote informative newspaper articles focusing on public health education that were distributed across the state. His medical research was frequently published in “The Charlotte Medical Journal” as well as other nationally distributed publications. His topics included childbirth pain relief, dysentery, flu, and the health benefits of our Western NC climate. These publications established Dr. Hunt with a respected professional reputation well beyond Transylvania County.

Dr. Hunt tended to the health of the people of Transylvania County for 44 years. As a frequently published researcher, he improved patient care well beyond this region. Dr. Hunt served as Transylvania County’s Health Officer for over seventeen years. He was a dedicated general doctor who traveled by horseback through the mountainous terrain to attend to his patients. According to descendants of one of his daughters, Henrietta Georgiana Hunt Chapman, in October 1915, Dr. Hunt reportedly won a contest sponsored by the “Dr. Stork Malt Nutrine Department” of the Anheuser-Busch Company. The prize was $250 in gold for the doctor who sent in the best caption for an advertisement illustration that showed a doctor walking to a cottage. Dr. Hunt’s caption, “On the Honeymoon Trail” was the winner, as reported in the “Charlotte Medical Journal”. Dr. Hunt used the gold to purchase his horse (pictured), which he named “Gold Fancy”.  

It was under his leadership as a long-serving County Health Officer that Transylvania County would model some early health reforms that would later be implemented throughout all of North Carolina. Thanks to Dr. Hunt, many of the state’s more forward-thinking public health reforms came to fruition, notably North Carolina’s first subsidized dental care for the children of economically challenged families.

As Health Superintendent of Transylvania County, he coordinated his county’s response to the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic. He first issued health directives, but when voluntary compliance failed, Dr. Hunt sought legal enforcement on both individuals and local businesses. In early 1919 he went before a grand jury and successfully got them to affirm his legal authority to quarantine and vaccinate. It was one month later that the United States would be in the throes of the “Blue Death”, the deadliest worldwide flu pandemic of the 20^th century with a U.S. death toll of approximately 550,000. However, Dr. Hunt’s legally enforced quarantine in Transylvania County was credited with saving many lives, thus greatly reducing the number of deaths in Transylvania County as compared with the number of deaths of other North Carolina counties. Following Transylvania’s early example, legal quarantines would become standard practice in North Carolina during public health emergencies.

Dr. Charles Hunt was a devoted, beloved physician. He died the evening of July 20, 1924, after working at his medical practice that day. Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Local History Assistant Helaine Kranz. For more information, comments, or suggestions, contact NC Room staff at [email protected] or 828-884-3151, ext. 1820.