Robert F. Hunter, Rapides Parish, Louisiana 
Submitted by Mike Miller    

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Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, 
Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 215-216.  
Edited by Alice Fortier, Lit.D.  
Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association 

ROBERT F. HUNTER  
Robert F. Hunter, attorney of Alexandria, La., was born in Rapides parish, 
May 18, 1847, the son of Robert A. Hunter, a native of Natchez, Miss., who 
was born Dec. 20, 1812. His grandfather was Pleasant Henderson Hunter, who 
was born in Kentucky and married at Natchez, Miss., Miss Kitchen, daughter 
of Benjamin Kitchen, and moved with his son to Rapides parish, La., in 1813.  
Robert A. Hunter was a planter until 1858, when he was elected treasurer of 
the state and moved with his family to Baton Rouge, where he resided during 
1858 and 1859. He then moved to New Orleans, where he was president of the 
board of currency. It is a matter of history that prior to the war Louisiana 
had the best monetary system in the United States and its currency was taken 
at par all over the country. He was a Confederate soldier and was in the 
Battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862. On the way to the Battle of Baton Rouge he 
was wounded and incapacitated for further service. After the war he obtained 
a license to practice law, and located at Alexandria. He died in July, 1882, 
in his 70th year.   

The grandfather, Pleasant H. Hunter, was a planter and merchant and lived on 
the plantation now known as Eden, 18 miles above Alexandria. He was the son 
of James Madison Hunter, who served in the Revolutionary war and was a 
descendant of one of two brothers, who moved from the north of Ireland to 
Kentucky previous to that war. Robert A. Hunter and Sarah Jane Ford were 
married when he was 18 and she was 16 years of age. She was a daughter of 
William P. Ford and died in 1853. The father served in the Mexican war and 
was adjutant in the regiment with Col. Marks. They were the parents of 12 
children, of whom 5 grew to maturity.    

Robert P. is the 7th son of the 7th son; was educated in the State University, 
then at Pineville, La., and at Washington and Lee university, at Lexington, 
Va. Gen. Lee was president of the college at the time subject attended school 
there. He knew Gen. Lee personally and visited at his house. Returned from 
college in 1868 and studied law, and Aug. 9, 1869, was admitted, to the bar 
and located at Alexandria, where he has been in practice 44 years, being one 
of the oldest practicing attorneys in the state.   

He was married July 7, 1870, to Miss Martha L. Ransdell, a sister of United 
States Senator Joseph E. Ransdell. Five children have been born to them, as 
follows: Robert A., attorney, who has been appointed assistant United States 
attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, and now resides at Shreveport;  
John R., attorney, state district attorney for the 13th Judicial District of 
Louisiana; Sarah, who is the wife of Ambrose J. Hertzog, living on a plantation 
near Deary, La.; Martha, the wife of Dr. Clarence Pierson, superintendent of 
the state insane asylum, at Jackson, La., and Mary, at home.    

For 10 years during reconstruction days he took an active part in freeing 
Louisiana from  negro domination, and in 1874, started and edited a newspaper 
called the "Caucasian," which was the beginning of the movement which was 
afterwards called the "White League." From 1884 to 1886 he served in the state 
legislature, representing Rapides parish, and took an active and prominent part 
in the fight against the Louisiana Lottery Co., in 1892. He is a member of the 
Knights of Pythias.