Major William Lockhart Hunter

Major William Lockhart Hunter

       From the 1870 Census

Name - Wm L. Hunter

Aged - 60 Years

Born - 1810 in Virginia

Home in 1870 - Elgin, Kane Co., Ill.

Race - White

Spouse - F. E. Hunter

Spouses Age - 48 Years

A ROMANTIC LIFE HISTORY

Death of a Citizen to Whom Heroic Adventure Was a Pastime.

       At Austin, Texas, Tuesday, there died a respected resident of Elgin whose career is so romantic, indeed heroic, that it surpasses the inventions of the story writers in its thrilling interest.   A quiet modest man, Judge Hunter shrank from notoriety and never, save with the companions of his adventures, would he discuss his life-story.   Yet this man’s assistence has been one gigantic struggle for liberty and patriotic lesson not excelled by that of any martyr of the war of independence.   He laughed at danger and freely offered his all on the altar of his country.   Death had no terror for him, yet through myriad perils he passed successfully, to breath his final breath, of last, in peace.   A hero of two wars, a companion of Houston and Fannin and Crockett, he survived all his associates and was long an historic character in the section where his adventures lay; a character venerated and beloved, for he recalled scenes which stir in the blood of every Texan.

       Born in Virginia in 1809 he went to New Orleans about 1830 as a manufacturer’s agent.   The yellow fever swept the city and his partner died.   Thousands perished.   Then he turned his eyes toward that part of Mexico which is now the state of Texas.   He was then an officer of the celebrated New Orleans Grays.   On one voyage from Louisiana to Galveston his ship was wrecked.   But two were saved.   Mr. Hunter’s companion was a Swedish sailor.   They were washed by the waves for three days.   This man he afterwards provided for and kept on his place until he died.

       In the war for Texas independence he was a trusted associate of the heroic spirits which carried to a successful outcome the revolt of the Lone Star republic against Mexican tyranny.   He was indeed one of the signers of the declaration of independence and consequently a marked man.   As no other man could claim, he was at both the Alamo and the Goliad.   From the former fort no man escaped alive, save three couriers who were sent by the intrepid David Crokett, after Colonel Travis had fallen, on a vain errand for aid.   Major Hunter was one of these couriers.   When, after all but six had fallen Crockett accepted Santa Anna’s proffers of quarter, only to be butchered in cold blood with his five fellows, Major Hunter had arrived at the Goliad.   There were saved from the Alamo two persons, a little boy and girl.   It is related that “The Child of the Alamo,” the boy who was rescued by the girl from slaughter, has recently had an affecting meeting with his rescuer, Mme. Candeleria, who is now an active woman of 97 years old.   It was their first meeting in fifty years, and it made quite a acusation in San Antonia.   In this defense, which ended March 6, 1838, every man of the garrison of 172 men perished, but they sold their lives dearly.   1,600 of their 4,000 besiegers were killed.   This was the Thermopyiae of the war for Texsan independence.   “Remember the Alamo” is today the war-dry of Texas.

       Three weeks afterward Santa Anna attacked Colonel Fannin at the Goliad.   After a hard-fought battle, in which nearly half his force fell Fannin and 357 survivors surrendered.   Major Hunter was one of these.   The Texans were ranged in line on the wide beach, and despite the pledges of safety on which they surrendered, were shot down to a man.   This revolting massacre occurred on the San Antonio river, in Goliad county, March 27, 1836.   Colonel Fannin, after the fall of the Alamo, had been ordered to fall back from Goliad to Victoria.   When six miles out from Goliad they were surrounded by the Mexicans.   Fannin have battle against great odds and held his line four days.   They were marched back to Goliad by the victorious Mexicans and crammed into a church from which place, after four days they were taken out on Palm Sunday, in four divisions, and shot down in cold blood, the Mexicans not even having the decency to bury the 330 corpses, to which fact Mr. Hunter owes his life.   The 26 other survivors of that dreadful day, with the exception of one man, have been dead for many years.   The last died but a year ago.   Major Hunter was not shot when the murderous Greasers did their bloody deed.   Well knowing what to expect and understanding Spainsh, the order to fire found him prostrtate on the ground.   When the coyote soldier of Mexico rifled the bodies he lay unhurt.   He wore a leather shirt or jacket, which was sewed close to his wrists.   The brutal robberf in cutting this loose gashed deep into his flesh.   Involuntarly he winced.   Seeing that life was not gone the Mexican plunged his bayonet through the Texan’s neck.   Then he struck him a frightful blow on the head with a huge horse pistol.

       Many hours after Mr. Hunter revived.   His undaunted spirit gave him strength, despite his seemingly fatal hurts, to drag himself several miles, and, after four days spent in the woods, he reached the cabin of a Mexican woman.   She, pitying yet knowing her life might be a forfeit, secreted him in a barn, nursed and fed him for weary weeks, until at last he could make his escape.   Once the place was searched by the Mexicans, but this hiding place, a barrel, was almost by miracle undesturbed.   This woman was supported in comfort by his generous bounty while he lived.

       At the ending of this war Mr. Hunter purchased the site of the massacre of the Goliad, carefully gathered together the bleached bones of his late comrades, gave them decent burial and erected a monument over them.   There he lived and flourished and there, he having married, his son, William F. Hunter, was born.   For fourteen years he was county judge and also postmaster of Goliad.   Wealth rewarded him for his sufferings and he enjoyed the comforts of a quiet life.

       Thus more than twenty years passed and again the mutterings of war were heard; the outbreak of the rebellion.   On his place were scores of negroes whom he had purchased.   They were not slaves for he had given them their freedom and he paid them wages.   It was a happy scene.   The owner of 33,000 acres of the best land in Texas, 25,000 head of cattle and much other property.   Judge Hunter had much to lose.   His neighbors were rabid secessionists, but he boldly proclaimed his Republicnism.   Hostilities began and he was warned to leave.   Finally a public meeting was held and a resolution was passed to hang him.   The chairman of the meeting was his near friend, to whom he not a month before, had loaned $5,000.   A committee waited on him with a rope.   He was at the bedside of a dying friend.   The latter’s eloquent pleadings and his own cool courage saved his life.   Despite his early military life he went among these desperate men unarmed.   What pointed their malice was the fact that most of them owed him sums of money and they thus sought to cancel their debts.   He had early taken his family north for safety and then returned to meet these perils.   Finally his house was sacked, $30,000 in notes and mortgages destroyed, his cattle confiscated and his land sold.   A copy of the proscription bill has been reserved by him as a memento.

       Judge Hunter finally came north.   Of his fortune he had saved just $1,000.   Half of this he paid on a note which he had endorsed for a relative.   Practically he was penniless.   About 1862 he came to Elgin with his wife, son, since postmaster of this city, and infant daughter, now Mrs. Will Yarwood of Redwood, Dakota.   Elgin has since been his home but he has spent his winters in Texas.

       His whole life since the war has been devoted to the good of others.   He returned at the close and looked after his property and colored charges.   Suits at law recovered part of the former.   Three years after the declaration of peace he found an old colored “Aunty” who had for years been a servent in his family.   She wept tears of joy at meeting him and begged of him to tell her if she was really free.   She, with the rest had been sold into slavery when he was driven out and had been kept at work without pay long after the war had ended.   The suit for wages which Judge Hunter commenced for this negro woman made her oppressor a poor man.   He divided up part of his land among his old servants and they became prosperous farmers, many of them.   Such suits as these and the multitude of dependants whom he provided for kept him a moderately poor man, although he doubtless owned much land at the time of his death.

       Racked with asthma for years and enfeebled by wounds and age he step has been tottering, yet his mind has been as clear as ever, and he was an active man up to the time he died.   Two weeks ago he left here for Austin to act as one of the state pension board, an office he had long held.   He never accepted a pension himself, but worked for his fellow veterans.   One errand he hurried back to perform, despite a recent sever illness, was to accompany a commission to the City of Mexico to bring back the remains of an old companion.   He had fought the Mexicans with Colonel Frank Johnson in 1836.   Colonel Johnson was killed before the capital and was buried there.   Fifty years ago the friends had promised each other to be buried side by side when dead.   Recently the Texan government had arranged to bring Johnson’s body to the National cemetery at Austin and it was desired that Mr. Hunter, as his nearest friend, be present.   The wish of a half century ago is now fulfilled.   Today all Austin followed the patriot’s remains to the grave, and the gallant Johnson’s ashes are on their way to be laid by his side.

       There is no living man in Texas whose name awoke such patriotic memories as did that of William Hunter, and the whole state will mourn him as a dead hero.

       Note;

This article is rife with both misspellings and wrong dates fixed to historical events.   Not knowing where this reporter got his information I can’t begin to guess why this was not caught in the editing process.   I have elected to leave most as is and only corrected the most grievous mistakes in spelling.

 

       From the Oct. 30, 1886 issue of the Elgin Advocate

A PROMINTENT MAN GONE.

Death of William Lockhart Hunter in Austin, Texas.

A Sketch of His Remarkable Life-One Who Fought in the Texe-Mexican War-Miraculous Escape at Alamo, and During the Late War, from Death Because of loyalty to the Old Flag-Buried Today In the national Cemetery at Austin.

       In Austin, Texas, on Tuesday evening, Oct. 26, Major W. L. Hunter died, after a short illness, aged 77.

       The major, in many respects, was one of the most remarkable men of the age.   His courage was only equaled by his modesty, and thus his wonderful career was known but to his more intimate friends.   Now that he has passed away, it is fitting that the outline of his life be given to his fellow citizens, by whom he was greatly esteemed.

       A Virginian by birth, at an early age he went to Texas and settled, a pioneer, at Goliad, where he gave his best energies to develop the state.

       In 1835, when the provisions government was formed in Texas, independence declared and Sam Houston chosen commander-in-chief, Mr. Hunter was one of the foremost promoters of the cause, and fought through the war against Mexico till the United States and some European powers acknowledged the independence of the “Lone Star” republic.

       Perhaps the best known of the battles of the Texo-Mexican war is the battle of the Alamo and the subsequent massacre.   This Texas fort defended by a mere handful of Americans was surrounded by a Mexican army of 8,000 men, commanded by Santa Anna.   Its defenders were nearly all slain.

       The battle, fought near Goliad, was a sever one, but overcome by numbers, the Americans surrendered upon promise by the Mexican president that their lives should be spared.

       Disregarding his pledge, Santa Anna caused the prisoners, who had been taken back to the old Mission church or Goliad, to be placed in line and shot.   Mr. Hunter was among the number, but, understanding Spanish, at the order to fire, he dropped as if shot, and for the time being escaped notice.   Soon afterwards a greaser, looking for plunder, saw that Mr. Hunter was not dead and ran him through the neck with his bayonet.   He then stripped him and went away.   After nightfall Mr. Hunter regained consciousness, managed to crawl from the bloody field, and found some Mexican women who cared for him.   He never entirely recovered from this fearful experience.

       At the outbreak of the war between the United States and Mexico Mr. Hunter was one of the first to offer his services.   He served with distinction, rising to the rank of major.

       Subsequent to the war during his residence in Texas he amassed considerable property; but, as he was an uncompromising union man, at the outbreak of the war of ghe rebellion his property was confiscated by the Confederate authorities.   As a matter of interest we give a portion of the “sale bill:”

 

RECEIVER’S SALE – VALUABLE REAL ESTATE.

       By the Virtue of Sundry decrees of the Confederate States District Court for the Western District of Texas, I will sell on Tuesday, the 7^th day of October, 1862 at Public Auction, in front of the court house door, in the city of Goliad, to the highest bidder FOR CASH – Confederate Notes or bonds, the following described property, to-wit,

       200 acres of land situated about 3 miles above Goliad on San Antonio river, with the improvements on the same known as Hunter’s Stock Ranch; 3,687 acres on San Antonio river being upper portion of the N. Galen league; 3,139 acres situated about 4 miles below Labahis on San Antonio river, with farm and improvements originally granted to F. Mancha; a fine large two story stone house in the city of Goliad and lot No. 4 in block 5. In Range (E) being known as the Boatright & Lipenoab store house.

(and 17,585 more acres of land and some town lots, fully described.)

 

       Several times during the rebellion he narrowly escaped hanging at the hands of the confederates, because of his staunch devotion to the flag and his outspoken loyalty.

       Another characteristic trait was his abhorience of slavery.   Before the war, needing laborers he purchased a number of slaves, gave them their freedom, and then hired them to work his plantations.   When his other property was confiscated by the confederate authorities they also seized his freedmen and sold them into slavery again.

       Since the close of the war major Hunter, through the courts recovered a portion of his confiscated lands; and, always mindful of his former colored tenants, succeeded in getting for them wages and damages in part.

       He always enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens, who conferred many offices upon him, among others that of probate judge.

       Since the war he has divided his time between Elgin and Texas.   Being one of the pension commissioners for Texas up to the time of his death he made Austin his headquarters.

       Major Hunter was the intimate friend of Gen. Sam Houston and Col. F. R. Johnson, the latter of whom was killed in the Mexican war and is buried at old Mexico.   Indeed, he was on his way, as one of the commission to go to Mexico, after Col. Johnson’s remains, when he sickened and died.

       It is the purpose to take the body of Col. Johnson to Austin where it will be interred in the National cemetery.

       At 3 o’clock this afternoon the remains of Maj. Hunter were conveyed to the same resting place; thus the old companions in arms well sleep, side by side, as they desired.

       He leaves a wife and two children-W. F. Hunter, of our city and Mrs. W. H. Yarwood of Redfield, Dakota.

(Daily News, 28^th.)

 

 

 

       From the Sept. 1993 issue of The Crackerbarrel

 

Major William Lockhart Hunter

- Viola Ashman Swanson



       Do you remember the Alamo?   Did you know that one of its heroes lived in Elgin for over 20 years?

       William Lockhart Hunter, a Virginian, was born in 1809.   By 1830 he was in New Orleans as a manufacturer's representative.   When a yellow fever epidemic swept through the city, he moved to Texas.   There he became one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.   He joined the armed forces of the new republic, and was with William Travis, James Bowie, and David Crockett at the Alamo.

       During late February, 1838, Hunter and two couriers were selected to leave the mission fort in an effort to get assistance.   Hence they were not at the Alamo on March 6, 1838, when the 186 men were overwhelmed by the Mexican armies and killed.

       The couriers moved southeast of San Antonio to join Colonel James Fannin.   General Jose Urrea's vastly superior forces found them in Goliad Township.   After a four day battle the 357 Texans surrendered on March 19, 1838.   The prisoners were housed in a mission church until March 27th, which was Palm Sunday.   On that day, by order of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the dictator of Mexico, the Americans were marched out and shot.   William Hunter dropped to tteh ground when he heard the Spanish order to fire and pretended to be dead.   A Mexican soldier started to rob him.   Finding Hunter alive, he shoved a bayonet through his neck and panged a pistol on his head.   many hours later, Hunter revived, wandered four days and finally reached a cabin where a Mexican woman nursed him back to health.

       Hunter served in thee American army during the Mexican War (1846-1848) where he rose to the rank of major.   After the hostilities had ended, he purchased the site of the Goliad Massacre where he erected a monument to the dead heroes.

       In 1850 Hunter married Fidelia Cook and they settled down to a quiet life in Goliad.   Eventually, they owned 33,000 acres and 25,000 head of cattle.   He was the postmaster for a time and they served 14 years as a probate judge.

       He freed his slaves and because of his sympathy for the Union, his secessionist neighbors resented his opinions.   In 1861, Hunter sent his wife and to children north.   When his own life was threatened in 1864, he joined them in Elgin.   He was practically penniless as their Goliad home, lands and cattle had been confiscated as well as $30,000 in notes and mortgages.

       After the Civil War, Hunter recovered part of his land through the courts.   Still living in Elgin, he spent the winters in Texas where he was active on the Texas Veterans Commission.

       One of Hunter's closest friends was Colonel Frank Johnson who was killed and buried in Mexico in 1846.   They had promised each other that they would be buried side by side.   Hunter worked 25 years trying to get authority to move his friend's body to Austin, Texas, for burial in the National Cemetery.

       The details were finally approved in 1886 and Hunter left Elgin to attend the burial.   He died suddenly on October 26, 1886, and was interred in the National Cemetery.   Colonel Johnson's ashes were buried a few days later in an adjoining grave.

       Mrs. Hunter continued to live at 14 North Geneva Street, Elgin, until her death on January 29, 1904.

       The couple had one daughter, May, born in 1854.   After the death of her first husband, Willard Yarwood, she married Gilbert B. Snow.   She died in 1955.

       The Hunter's also had a son, William Franklin Hunter, who was born in 1853.   He married Mary Van Brunt in 1883 in Adrian, Michigan.   After qn active life which included seven years as Elgin's Postmaster, a term in the Illinois Legislature, and eight years on the Elgin City council, he died in 1928.   He was buried in Bluff City Cemetery, Elgin.   Buried on the same lot are his wife who died in 1927, his mother, and his sister.

       Major Hunter's obituaries point out that he was a quiet and modest man and only his family and a few close friends knew of his experience at the Alamo and Goliad.

       From the Oct. 27, 1886 issue of the Austin Daily Statesman shelved at the Austin Public Library through the research by Viola Swanson.



THE LATE JUDGE HUNTER
       As will be seen in our local columns, the funeral of JUDGE HUNTER will take place as soon as his son arrives, and then the remains will be interred in the state cemetery.
       Thus passes off the stage of life forever another of the men who half a century ago, aided in founding the republic of Texas.   Whilst the most unassuming of men, JUDGE HUNTER was a conspicuous actor in the great scenes of connected with the invasion of Texas by the army of Santa Anna in the early part of 1836.
       The deceased veteran was one of the men who opposed the force of Mexicans under General COE previous to the battle of SAN JACINTO and his name will live in the history of Texas as one of the tow men who alone escaped the terrible and bloody massacre of FANNIS'S devoted band.   It is therefore fitting that he should repose in the cemetery set apart for its distinguished dead by the great state whose foundation he helped to lay deep and strong.

       From the Oct. 28, 1886 issue of the Elgin News through the research by Viola Swanson.

A PROMINENT MAN GONE

DEATH OF WILLIAM LOCKHART HUNTER IN AUSTIN, TEXAS.

       In Austin, Texas, on Tuesday evening, Oct. 26, Major W. L. Hunter died, after a short illness, aged 77.

       The major, in many respects, was one of the most remarkable men of the age.   His courage was only equaled by his modesty, and thus his wonderful career was known but to his more intimate friends.   Now that he has passed away, it is fitting that the outline of his life be given to his fellow citizens, by whom he was greatly esteemed.

       A Virginian by birth, at an early age he went to Texas and settled, a pioneer, at Goliad where he gave his best energies to develop the state.

       In 1838, when the provisional government was formed in Texas, independence declared and Sam Houston chosen commander-ion-chief, Mr. Hunter was one of the foremost promoters of the cause, and fought through the war against Mexico till the United States and some European powers acknowledged the independence of the "Lone Star" republic.

       Perhaps the gest known of the battles of the Texo-Mexican war is the battle of the Alamo and the subsequent massacre.   This Texas fort defended by a mere handful of Americans was surrounded by a Mexican army of 8,000 men, commanded by Santa Anna.   Its defenders were nearly all slain.

 



 



       From the Find-a-Grave Index

Name - William L. Hunter

Born - Dec. 12, 1808 in Virginia

Died - Oct. 25, 1886

Cemetery - Bluff City Cemetery in Elgin, Cook Co., Ill.       Note; This is only a marker.