DR. ANDREW JACKSON HUNTER
Born March 18, 1816 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, son of John Hunter and Sarah (Price) Hunter, Andrew Jackson Hunter was the youngest of sixteen children. About 1850, after attending medical college and spending several years in private practice in Louisiana, A. J. Hunter took a position as company physician for the Illinois Central Rail Road. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Dr. Hunter joined the Confederacy as a battlefield surgeon. When the Civil War ended in 1865, Dr. Hunter and his wife, Susannah, moved west with their three children, Mary, Davis and Lizzie.
In 1870, Dr. Hunter established squatters rights for a piece of land north of the Yellowstone River in Montana Territory. On this land gushed a natural hot spring. The geothermally-heated water found there was rich in sulphur and iron, and Dr. Hunter decided this would be a suitable place to settle with his family and build a theraputic spa and resort. The hotel and resort established by Dr. Hunter flourished over the years and the resulting town site became known as Hunters Hot Springs. In 1885, Hunter sold the Hunters Hot Springs hotel and spa to Cyrus B. Mendenhall, Man 15 in the group picture. Dr. Hunter was father-in-law to Frank Rich, Man 7 in the HHS group photo. Dr. Hunter died in Bozeman, Montana in 1894.
A detailed history of the Hunter family in Montana by Sharon Pohlman is found here.
Dr. A. J. Hunter is noted in the 1902 reference work Progressive Men of the State of Montana.
Initial identification of Man 6 by Liver Eating Johnston biographer Dorman Nelson of Los Angeles, California.
