Meeker County MN Archives Biographies.....Hunter, John, Sr. 1826 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 22, 2019, 11:10 am

Source: Alden, Ogle & Co.
Author: See Below

   JOHN HUNTER, SR. The subject of this sketch, who is one of the most prominent and
respected farmers and stock raisers in the northern portion of the county, is a
resident of section 18, Union Grove township. He comes of a race which make the best
citizens in Minnesota’s population, and a race which is proverbial for their
integrity, industry, frugality, and genial and hospitable temperament, for it is an
old and true saying that “no man goes hungry from a Scotchman’s door.”

   Mr. Hunter was born in the county of Barrackshire, Scotland, on the 10th of
April, 1826. His early life was spent in the land of his birth, where he received
the training and education afforded by the facilities of those days, and imbibed the
principles of hohesty, industry and economy, which are characteristic of the Scotch
people. Economy and industry were essential in those days to make a living, and the
wage earnings of that day would now be considered a pittance. About the year 1849 he
came to America and settled in Canada, where he remained for sixteen years. He then,
in 1865, came to Meeker county) Minn., and located on section 18, in what is now
Union Grove township, where he has since lived. At the time he came here there were
only three settlers within the limits of the township, as all the earlier settlers
had been driven off by the Indians and had not returned as yet. Mr. Hunter had a
good deal to contend with during those early days and had to encounter difficulties
and disadvantages to which most men would have surrendered. When he arrived here his
earthly possessions consisted of one yoke of oxen and a cow, and for two years he
had very little to eat, living a good share of the time on wheat boiled in milk.
Flour was worth $16 per barrel, and potatoes $1.25 per bushel, and at one time he
traded a two-year-old steer, even, for a 100-weight of flour. They were obliged to
go to Cold Springs, a distance of twenty-five miles, to mill and the trip usually
took three days. No work could be found, and there was no money in the country, and
at times it looked as though starvation stared them in the face, but during all the
trials and hardships his courage and enterprise never forsook him and it has not
been unrewarded, as he is now rated as one of the most solid and substantial
citizens of the township in which he lives. He has a fine farm of 250 acres and a
comfortable home.

   Mr. Hunter was married on the 1st of April, 1849, to Agnes Brown Lee, and their
union has been blessed with seven children, as follows— Mary, Jane, James
(deceased), John, Charles, Charlotte, and George (deceased).

   During the first year that Mr. Hunter and his family were here, they had neither
team nor cow; they had to carry their house-logs out of the woods— Mr. Hunter
carried one end and old Mr. Beaumont the other. The boys each had to hold forked
sticks to reach to the log so as to help. When they got their oxen, they did all
their hauling, summer and winter, on a sled. Deer and elk would often come into the
dooryard, while bear was by no means an unfrequent visitor. On one occasion, they
found by the tracks, that a bear had climbed upon the wood-house and from there to
the roof of the cabin, which was covered with sod. In those days they were afraid
that some night they might come down the fire chimney. Wolves were numerous, and in
addition to this they were constantly on the lookout for Indians. These were some of
the trials, experiences and hardships which the early settlers endured.


Additional Comments:
Illustrated Album of Biography
Meeker and McLeod Counties, Minnesota
1888


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