Logan County, West Virginia Biography of James Garfield HUNTER This file was submitted by CJ Towery, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, page 237 JAMES GARFIELD HUNTER is a young man in years, but with a business experience running back to the time when he was just entering his "teens." If every man is born with an aptitude that fits him for some form of useful service, it is evident that Mr. Hunter had a generous inheritance, since he has done a number of things well, and that without any endowment of financial means or special opportunities. His activities have been largely identified with the town of Logan since that town was in the early stages of its development. Mr. Hunter was born October 7, 1883, eight miles east of Charleston, in Kanawha County, son of Samuel and Mary (Abbott) Hunter. His father, who was born in Giles County, Virginia, died in 1895, at the age of sixty-seven. His wife was a native of Kanawha County and died there January 15, 1920, at the age of seventy-six. Samuel Hunter was a carpenter by trade, and served as a Union soldier in the Home Guards during the Civil war, was also a millwright, and bought the first flour mills on Rock River and at Charleston. For a number of years he was river foreman for the Campbell Creek Coal Company, and did an extensive business building tipples, barges and steam boats for that corporation. He lost his life through an accident caused by a slipping ladder. In addition to the above named activities he owned and lived on a farm on Elk River, in a community that was practically a wilderness when he moved there. That land is still in the family. It was in this country district that James Garfield Hunter spent his early boyhood. He attended the common schools near home, and was only twelve years of age when his father died. That created the necessity that he get out and find some occupation that would contribute to the support of his widowed mother and the other children. He has two brothers, James, a farmer living near the old homestead, and Luther, an employee of the Campbell Creek Coal Company. James G. Hunter earned his first money in the timber, and for two years drove a mule team before he was strong enough either to load or unload a wagon. He also did farm work, and for eighteen months after reaching his fifteenth birthday he was employed in a saw mill belonging to the Donaldson Lumber Company on Blue Creek. For another two years he was in the Coal River District with the firm of Anderson and Bentley, in their saw mill, and for the next two years was sawyer for the Donaldson Lumber Company. Probably no work around a saw mill could be enumerated in which Mr. Hunter has not had practical experience. At the age of twenty-one he married Miss Ella Brockell, daughter of J. C. Brockell. The first six months after he married he lived on a farm, and then removed to Cabin Creek, where for five years he was manager of two saw mills owned by Charles Cabell. The next formed a business association with his father's old company, the Campbell Creek Coal Company, having a contract to supply mining timber to that corporation. On leaving the Campbell Company Mr. Hunter moved to Logan, which was then a comparatively new town. For eighteen months he was engineer for the Wilson Coal Company, and then engaged in the taxi business, owning the second automobile in the town. He was in this work two years, then opened and conducted a restaurant for three years, and following that he bought a block of stock in the Deere Undertaking Company, and has since been manager of that establishment. Through these various changes Mr. Hunter has steadily promoted himself to something better and has been one of the really prosperous citizens of Logan. He and Mrs. Hunter have five children: Averill, Marie, Mary, Belle and Jean. Averill is now attending Stewart College. Mr. Hunter is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Moose, has taken the Rose Croix degree in Scottish Rite Masonry at Huntington, and is a member of the Masonic Lodge and Chapter in Logan. Politically he is a republican.