I was recently contacted by a gentleman regarding his father’s L.C. Smith, and his name is Hunter. I mentioned that my maternal grandmother’s mother was Amanda Donovan Hunter.
Some time ago my father’s sister sent me her genealogy files, which I began to dig through.
John Hunter was born in Ireland, Derry Co., (or Londonderry) about 1809. He came to Penn. about 1832, and married Clara Elizabeth Hart (also from Derry) in 1836. They went to Kane Co. Illinois in 1842.
One son, also John, died in Elgin, Ill. related to injuries from the Civil War.
Another son was Hugh Hunter, born 1849, who went to homestead in Minn. about 1870. In my aunt’s files I found a copy of an article written in 1926 about his life. Interesting! Hugh’s children were Thomas, Theodore, Joseph, Roy, Anna and Bertha. Roy was the gentleman’s grandfather.
Another son, James Hunter was born in 1848 in Ill. and he and Amanda Donovan were married in Bourbon Co., Kansas in 1874. They moved to Jackson Co. Missouri in 1887. In 1920, James and Amanda were living in Maywood, (Independence) Mo. with my maternal grandmother, Bertha. She was supporting the family as the church secretary at Maywood Baptist Church, where she met and married the pastor, my grandfather, Alvin Hause.
So two Scots-Irish Hunters, John and James, born not long apart. Could there be (other than the Clan https://www.clanhunterusa.org/ ) a closer family connection?
Thanks for the indulgence gentlemen. James C. Hunter's (as in Hunter Arms) father was apparently Thomas, with an estate near Antrim, Ireland. Unfortunately I do not have the name of (our) John's father in Derry.