| Father: | William Hunter |
| Mother: | Martha Davis |
| Date and Place of Birth: | 9/18/1845, Daviess County, Indiana (Barr Township). |
| Spouse: | Susan Dell Banta |
| Children: | Mattie F. (b. 9/13/1872), William A. (b. 2/18/1878), Cora Blanche (b. 10/23/1880), Lillie May (b. 8/31/1886), Annie Gertrude (b. 2/28/1889). |
| Date and Place of Death: | 3/7/1924, Daviess County, Indiana. |
| Place of Burial: | Bethany Cemetery, Daviess County, Indiana (Barr Township). |
| Military History: | See Below. See also: GAR Reunion Picture |
| Comments: | Younger brother of Reuben Hunter and Henry Thomas Hunter |
| Submitter of Information: | Barbara Hunter |
Franklin Marion
Hunter
Franklin M. Hunter was born September 19, 1845, in Barr Township, Daviess County, Indiana the fourth child of Martha (Davis) and William Hunter. He enrolled as Francis M. Hunter a Private of Captain J. A. Palmer’s Company G, 42nd Regiment of Indiana Veteran Infantry Volunteers on the 27th day of February, 1864 to serve three years. He was discharged from service on the 28th day of July, 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky.
Frank and his younger brother, William Albert Hunter, and two sisters and spouses (Julia Ann (Hunter) and John C. McCracken; Laura (Hunter) and William Henry McGehee moved to Texas in 1870. Frank returned to Daviees Co., Indiana in 1871 and the rest of the family moved into Kansas.
Susan Dell Banta and Franklin Marion Hunter were married in Barr Twsp., Daviess Co., Indiana on December 27, 1871 by Henry R. Pritchard, V.D.M. They lived in a log house built by Dell’s grandfather Henry Banta. Frank purchased the undivided one tenth from four of the Banta heirs (64 acres more or less) plus eight acres from another heir from the original 160 acres tract that John Fulton, Dell’s great-grandfather had purchased from the government at the land office of the U.S. located in Vincennes, Indiana on January 8, 1818.
It was in the little log house that Frank and Dell began to raise their family. Mattie F. hunter was born September 13, 1872; William Austin Hunter was born February 18, 1878; Cora Blanche Hunter was born October 23, 1880; and Lillie May Hunter was born August 31, 1886. In 1888 a frame house was built and their last child, Annie Gertrude Hunter was born February 28, 1889.
Frank was a farmer but he also became a carpenter. You could always tell a frank Hunter house as they were all built with three rooms deep with one room, two rooms, and one room usually had several porches built in the offsets. Frank and Dell spent many years together and they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on December 27, 1921 with a family gathering. In a newspaper clipping of their celebration they were referred to as “an unusual couple, typifying the best of pure American home life.”
Frank died on March 7, 1924 and is buried in Bethany Cemetery, Barr Twsp., Daviess County, Indiana. From his obituary: “The deceased man whose word was as good as his bond was an outstanding representative of the fast-passing type of citizenship that has done much to make Daviess County a leading Indiana community. It can be said with all candidness that in his death the community has suffered an irreparable loss.”
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