There are a variety of stories about the naming of Huntsville. The major players seem to remain the same, but there are noted differences in every version. Given here are two different tales of how Huntsville got its name. One of the most accepted versions was published in the Friday, 22 Jan 1915 edition of the Higbee News, and is as follows:
HOW HUNTSVILLE GOT ITS NAME--We have often wondered, as doubtless many others have done, how Huntsville, Randolph's progressive county seat, came to have its streets laid out "catawampus" with the world. the following, taken from the Huntsville Herald of last week, tells how it happened, as well as how the town got it's name:
Another chapter that could be added to the early history of this county is how this city was named Huntsville.
There were at that time four good citizens, Gideon Wright, Henry Winburn, William Goggin and Daniel Hunt, owning land which cornered very near the center of the county, which was then and is now an elevated, beautiful, sanitary site for a city, and these four citizens agreed that each would donate to the county twelve and one-half acres of land for a "seat of justice" or, as in more modern phraseology, a County Seat. Probably because of the lay of the land each of the four gave a triangular piece with the agreement that a court house building was to be erected thereon with the tower thereof directly over the point where these lands cornered. This making the hypotenuse of
these four triangular tracts of land the four sides of the city; and all streets of the city run on an angle of forty-five degrees and the four corners of the building face the four corners of the compass, North, South, East and West, causing many visitors and some citizens to be at times lost in the city, and to doubt that the sun rose in the East and set in the West.
These fifty acres of good land having been legally conveyed, the next question for the few residents of the county to decide was what their "seat of justice" should be named. In appreciation of their generosity, the four donors of the site were given the right to name the newly born city. Two of the men, Mr. Goggin and Mr. Hunt, hoping that their names might be perpetuated, expressed a choice; Mr. Goggin that of Gogginville, and Mr. Hunt that of Huntsville. The citizens, being divided as to the name, agreed that a day should be set for holding an election and all residents of the county be invited to come to this city and vote on the two names proposed with the understanding that the name receiving the greatest number of votes should be the name of the city. Much interest was taken in the election, the voting being by public outcry and was rather close, but the friends of Mr. Hunt being in the majority, or the name of Huntsville being more euphonious than Gogginsville, the former received the greater number of votes.
It is said that after the choice of names was thus determined, Mr. Hunt, to celebrate the decision, very generously rolled out a barrel of bourbon onto what is now known as the court house square, knocked the head out of the barrel, supplied the necessary tin cups and invited the crowd assembled to join in the christening of the newly born city.
Thus is that instead of Gogginsville this city is "on the map" as Huntsville. We might add that there are many relations and descendants of Daniel Hunt for whom this city was named, in the country, and prominent among those who reside elsewhere is Gov. G. W. P. Hunt, of Arizona, a former citizen of this county.
Another version of how Huntsville got its name appeared in the Saturday, February 1, 1902 edition of the Macon Republican in a story on the death of Liberty Noble:
According to tradition which is pretty well authenticated Blanderman Smith, of Kentucky , was the first inhabitant. Liberty Noble, hailing from the same state, came next. They were soon followed by Daniel Hunt and Wm. Goggin of North Carolina. These four hardy frontiersmen, with grubbing hoe and spade, cleared out the brush on the eminence where the imposing court house of Randolph county now rests. They soon assumed the leadership of the colony that rapidly followed, and by and by the question of a name for it came up. Each of the pioneer promoters naturally desired the honor, and it was agreed to let the voters settle it in the good old primary method as to whether the place shall be known to future generations as Huntsville, Smithville, Gogginville or Nobletown. It was there one of the great American institutions was developed, the art of electioneering. But Hunt was wiser than his generation; he introduced a scheme that certainly was original at that time, and it is still somewhat in vogue. He imported from his native common wealth a barrel of cider say, and as he buttonholed the voters he quietly led them to the secret grove where his campaign literature was on tap. When the ballots were counted Hunt had a surprising majority. And thus did one of the famous old towns of Northern Missouri receive its appellation in the year of our Lord 1829.
What is clear from both accounts is the names of Gogginville and Huntsville were in the running for the name of the town, and that somehow a barrel of alcohol was involved. In the second account, the other men for whom the town was considered being named did indeed live in the area, but the land patents they obtained were not within the town site. Blanderman Smith's patent from 1827 was outside what are now the corporate limits of Huntsville to the west. Liberty Noble on the other hand did not obtain his first patent deed until 1835, and this was south of what are now the corporate limits of Huntsville. That is not to say he had not already settled the area by 1829, but simply he had no legal claim to land in what would become the town when it was laid out or even near it. It is interesting that the men who had more of a claim to the town being named for them, Gideon Wright and Henry Winburn are not mentioned in the second account, but are the first. This all throws the second account into doubt, but it is impossible to say which account is more reliable. Both were recorded nearly 80 years after the town was named, and no doubt details got changed as the tales were passed down.