San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ANTHONY HUNTER
Among one of the most prominent and
influential of the early day pioneers of San Joaquin County who left his
impress on the development of this famed section and garden spot of the world
was the late Anthony Hunter, who was born in County Antrim, Ireland, March 10,
1819. He was a son of Anthony and Eliza
(Lynn) Hunter. The mother died when he
was a youth, but his father lived to the age of eighty years.
When a mere lad, Anthony, with his
grandmother, left Ireland for Glasgow, where he was reared in her home, and was
set to work at menial labor in a distillery.
From childhood he had a strong inclination toward prohibition and
rebelled at being compelled to remain long at such a task, and all this time he
never tasted liquor. He was liberal in
thought, set in his ways, and inclined strongly to freedom; his aim was to
start in a new land. So he chose the
country of the Stars and Stripes for its liberal government and for the
untrammeled opportunities it afforded.
He boarded a westbound sailing
vessel, the “Lord Ashburton,” and landed in New York
in February of 1844. He went directly to
Monroe County, Ohio, and there he invested $500 in a fifty-acre farm; this he
held two years and sold to good advantage for $1,000. The next five years he was employed at
various jobs, being located near Wheeling, West Virginia, as a dairy farmer for
a time.
In 1851 he decided to come to
California. The journey was made from
New York to Aspinwall on an old side-wheeler.
He then crossed the Isthmus on mule back to Panama, where he boarded a
steamer and arrived in San Francisco August 1, 1851. He went directly to the mines in Calaveras
County, and he was occupied at prospecting for nine years, making a marked success,
but discontinued it in 1860.
In 1863 Mr. Hunter purchased a ranch
of 500 acres near Waterloo, where he engaged extensively as a wheat
grower. This ranch he sold in 1867. He went back to Ohio, visiting friends in
that state, then went to New York, where he visited in the city and as far west
in the state as Westfield. The trip,
besides being very pleasant, was also an educational one for him. In 1868 he returned to California and was
married at Murphy’s, being united to Miss Eliza J. McGill, the ceremony taking
place June 8, 1868.
In 1868 Mr. Hunter bought a ranch on
the Copperopolis Road, in a favored section nine miles east of Stockton. Having noticed the natural climatic
conditions favoring that locality, as well as the wonderful fertility of the
soil which made it possible to raise large crops in a succession of years, he
acted as his insight directed. His first
investment was a ranch of 120 acres, the home place; the residence was suitably
remodeled and has been the Hunter home ever since. He was also a prominent figure in financial
circles in Stockton. On his ranch he
developed a small orchard and set out a vineyard. Meantime, after a succession of favorable years,
he invested in 322 acres eleven miles east of Stockton on the Linden Road,
which is now owned by Miss Hunter. He
was one of the first in that part of the county who demonstrated the
adaptability of the soil for fruit raising.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Hunter was
blessed with a daughter, Jennie Mateer Hunter, who
was a delight and comfort to her parents.
As she grew up she displayed marked business acumen. Her father took her into his confidence and
close association with him in varied business affairs. His death, occurring as it did on January 21,
1891, was a severe loss to his family and many friends. He was reared a Presbyterian and he held to
that denomination; but he was liberal, and as a Christian man he contributed
freely to all denominations. Quiet and
unassuming, but kind-hearted and generous, he aided much in the development of
the valley and the great state which he loved.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
442. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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