My Genealogy Hound

H. C. Hunter is a representative man of Greene County, Ark., who has attained his property by industry and good business ability, and has won an enviable position in society circles. He was born in Middle Tennessee, in 1842, and up to the age of eighteen years was reared on his father’s plantation, thus becoming familiar with the details of farm life. When eighteen he emigrated to Greene County, Ark., but when the Rebellion broke out, in 1861, he enlisted from Tennessee for twelve months, in Company G, Ninth Tennessee Infantry, Confederate States Army, and participated in the battles of Belmont, Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Perryville, and at Chickamauga was wounded by a gun shot, and was confined in the hospital at Montgomery, Ala. After recovering he was detailed to the engineers’ department, and was engaged in constructing bridges until the final surrender, when he returned to Greene County, Ark., and resumed farming. He has now an excellent farm of over 200 acres, with about 100 acres under cultivation, on which he raises cotton and corn. He also gives considerable attention to the propagation of stock, and has an excellent range on which his animals pasture. Having been a resident of this State for many years, he has seen the gradual but sure development of the country from a wilderness to finely cultivated farms, for where churches, schools and substantial homes now are, then Indians and wild animals in profusion roamed the woods. He has done a full share in securing this desirable change, and by industry and shrewd management has made his farm one of the best in the county. Where he was previously obliged to go 125 miles to market he now only goes eight miles, to Paragould. He was married in Greene County, in 1873, to Miss Georgianna King, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of John M. and Sarah Jane (Freeland) King, who were also Tennesseans, emigrating to Greene County, Ark., in 1872, and opening up a farm; later they moved to Pemiscot County, Mo., where they are living at the present time. The father was a volunteer in the Mexican War. Mr. and Mrs. Hunter are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and are the parents of the following children: Betty, Alva, Minnie, Charles, James and Rufus M. Mr. Hunter is a Democrat. He was the youngest of eight children born to Layton and Elizabeth (Robison) Hunter, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. They were married in the former State, and here the father became quite a wealthy planter, but in 1859 removed to Greene County, Ark., and settled on the farm now owned by our subject, H. C. Hunter. He figured quite prominently in politics while in Tennessee, but after coming to Arkansas he remained more at home. His health was always good and he died in 1875, at the age of seventy-five years, his wife’s death occurring within a few days of his own. The paternal grandfather was a Virginian, and a soldier in the War of 1812, as was also the maternal grandfather, the latter being a native of Kentucky soil.