In celebration of the 250th Anniversary of our country, local members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will highlight the patriots buried in Southeast Missouri.
Joseph Hunter II was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about 1760, to Joseph Hunter and Mary Holmes.
Because the family was not financially secure, the senior Joseph Hunter moved west seeking business opportunities. In 1769, the family moved to an area twenty-five miles from Pittsburgh. Here, Joseph Hunter bought land which he called “Catfish Camp.” When financial success did not materialize, he sold the land to David Hoge and moved the family to Corn Island, near present-day Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1779, an expedition under General George Rogers Clark was authorized to establish a fort and a civilian settlement upon the banks of the Mississippi, a few miles below the mouth of the Ohio. The Hunter family went from the falls of the Ohio to the mouth of the Ohio and settled at Fort Jefferson. The mission proved to be dangerous. Frequent attacks by the Chickasaw forced the inhabitants to remain inside the fortifications. Crops and livestock were destroyed during the attacks. Supply deliveries were unreliable, and starvation was a threat. Joseph Hunter II, along with other scouts, would cross the Mississippi into Spanish Territory to hunt buffalo for survival. By 1781, the fort was abandoned, and some of the Hunter family retreated upriver to Kaskaskia, Illinois, while others returned to Louisville, Kentucky.
Revolutionary War service for Joseph Hunter II includes serving in the Jefferson County militia under Captain Andrew Hynes and General George Rogers Clark in 1782.
In 1805, Joseph Hunter II crossed the Mississippi River and settled in the New Madrid District. He was appointed to serve as the Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions for the New Madrid District in 1808.
He married Catherine Phillips and they had the following children: Abraham, who married Sarah Ogden; Hannah, who married Mark Hardin Stallcup; James, who married Lucy M. Beckwith; David, who married Nancy Phillips; Joseph, who married Elizabeth Johnson; Thomas, who married Eliza Myers; Milford, who married Susan “Suzannah” Jones; and Mary, who married Andrew Giboney.
Joseph Hunter II died in Scott County, Missouri, in December of 1823. He is buried in the Hunter Family Cemetery in Sikeston.
Mary Hunter Giboney Houck was the first member of the DAR to join under her grandfather Joseph Hunter. She was the organizing regent of the Nancy Hunter Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in Cape Girardeau.
Compiled by Morgan Myer Lake, Kingshighway Chapter NSDAR.
Sources:
Carstens, Kennth C. Fort Jefferson, 1780-1781: A Summary of Its History
DAR Genealogical Research System.
Harding, Margery Heberling. George Rogers Clark & His Men, pp. 194, 195.
Iowa Historical Record Quarterly, Vol. II, April 1886, No. 2, page 258.
Letter from Joseph Hunter, Sr. to General George Rogers Clark, Fort Jefferson, April 20, 1781.
New Madrid Co., MO Deeds 1805-1815, familysearch.org
IGS#008194170 image 119/501
Washington Co., PA. Deeds 1786–1787, familysearch.org
IGS# #008084631 image 313/470 and
Wisconsin Historical Society, Vol. 31, page 72.
Wisconsin Historical Society, Vol. 51, page 41.
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