Armstrong County PA Archives Biographies.....Hunter, M.D., Dr. Robert P. January 23, 1837 - ????
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Source: History of Armstrong County, Chicago: Waterman, Watkins and Co. 1883.
Author: Robert Walter Smith, Esq.

  ...Robert Hunter, grandfather of our subject, was born in 
Westmoreland county, in 1782, and was one of the first 
settlers of Indiana county.  He married Miss Mary Lawrence, 
a native of New Jersey, born in the year 1781.  There were 
born to this pair fourteen children, nearly all of whom grew 
to maturity.  The father died in Jacksonville, Indiana 
county, in 1861, surviving his wife three years.

  John M. Hunter, father of the subject of this sketch, was 
born June 12, 1807, and lived all of his life in his native 
county, dying in Blairsville March 28, 1868.  He was married 
May 30, 1830, to Miss Annie Reese Banks, who was born in 
this state October 10, 1810.  She died August 16, 1875, in 
Leechburgh, where she had come to reside with her son.  Nine 
children were born of this union, whose names together with 
dates of their births, are as follows:  Joshua Banka, born 
November 4, 1832; Mary A., born October 23, 1835; Robert P., 
January 23, 1837; William I., September 29, 1839; Ella M. 
(wife of Dr. W. H. Kern, of McKeesport), August 16, 1842; 
Morgan R., April 4, 1844; John A., August 20, 1846 (the last 
named became a physician; was elected to the legislature, 
and died upon the day he became a member of that body); 
Milton C. was born August 7, 1850, and J. Irwin, June 19, 
1852.

  Of the above, Joshua Banks, Morgan R. and John A. served 
their country in the war for the Union.

  Of the above, those who are deceased, besides John A., are 
William I. and Mary A., who became with wife of William F. 
Boyer, in 1855.   John M.  Hunter, the father of these 
children, followed shoemaking most of his life, but during 
the years 1854 and 1855 was a foreman on the Pennsylvania 
canal, under his son-in-law, Mr. Boyer, who was its 
superintendent.

  Robert P. Hunter began the study of medicine under his 
uncle, Dr. M. R. Banks, of Livermore, Westmoreland county, 
in 1862.  Prior to this time he had worked on the 
Pennsylvania canal under his father for two years, and had 
taught school during the winter months for five years.  The 
proceeds of both his manual and intellectual labor were 
saved with commendable economy and prudence, and, 
supplemented by his limited earnings from the practice of 
his profession after he had taken a few lectures, enabled 
him to obtain a thorough professional education at the 
Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia.  Doubtless he 
studied harder and with better results from the fact that he 
had earned by hard work the mean necessary to pay his way 
through college.  His first course of lectures was taken in 
1864, and he graduated, standing well in his class, in 1869. 
 He first located in Leechburg to follow his profession, May 
9, 1865, and has been permanently and prosperously engaged 
in practice there since his graduation.  He is a man who 
finds exercise for his energies outside of his profession, 
although the greater part of his time and attention is 
devoted to it.  In 1873 he was one of the leading spirits in 
organizing the Leechhburgh bank, and has been a stockholder 
and director in the institution continuously since, until 
1880.  He was also among the first to bring fine short-horn 
cattle into the county, procuring them in Kentucky in 1878.  
As a result of the interest he has felt in good stock and 
the action he took to secure it, there are now many fine 
blooded cattle and horses in the immediate vicinity.  Dr. 
Hunter served two terms as burgess of Leechburg, and during 
the Pittsburgh railroad riots were surgeon-in-chief of Gen. 
Harry White's staff, 9th division, N. G., having been 
commissioned by Gov. Hartranft December 29, 1875.  On June 
29, 1881, he was made president of the Armstrong County 
Prohibitory Amendment Association, a temperance organization 
which met in Kittanning upon that date.  He is an elder of 
the Presbyterian church of Leechburg, and superintendent of 
its Sunday school.  Highly respected both as physician and 
citizen, Dr. Hunter occupies a useful position in the 
community, and is an active worker for good.

  Upon May 18, 1875, Dr. Hunter was united in marriage with 
Miss Rebecca Hill, daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Kuhns) 
Hill, who was born in Armstrong county June 30, 1853.  They 
have had three children - John A. H., born June 18, 1876; 
Anna Lydia, born January 10, 1878, and Robert K., born 
October 19, 1879, all of whom are living.

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