Jason Henderson Hunter

This morning on The Today Show they had an article about the hidden micro-things breeding and hatching away in the average pillow. They supposedly had 4 random people there who volunteered their pillows to be inspected. They showed that each pillow had its own little community of live critters. Some had more than others.

But that is not what this is about.

The first person was a young man who looked to be in his late 20s, who looked as if he had probably been a jock in high school. His name was Jason Hunter. I immediately wondered if we are distant cousins. If his given name Jason was handed down to him by his father, and it went on up a Jason Hunter line, indeed we would be related.

My great-great grandfather was Jason Henderson Hunter (c1810-1888). Jason was probably born in Henderson County, North Carolina, and as a young man moved with his parents and siblings to Union County, Georgia, about 1834, when that area was opened to the white man. In 1838-39, Jason and his brother Andrew were soldiers of the local militia who participated in removing the Cherokee and Creek Indians in the infamous “Trail of Tears”.

In about 1840 he settled in Macon County, North Carolina.. There he was a farmer and at times the local constable for Franklin, the county seat.

Jason married Elizabeth Sherril and the had four children. Not only did Jason and his wife have children but Jason and at least two other women reproduced. Jason was sued for bastardy twice by Catherine Davis. Catherine had two sons by Jason, Seth and Jason Davis. They both were killed in the Civil War. And Jason also had a fling with my great-great grandmother Rebecca Trammell. Again, they had two children, William, my great grandfather, and Rebecca. He was sued for bastardy four times and each time admitted he was the father, and each time the court ruled for that he pay $100 a year for child support. $400 a year was a lot of money back then.

He and his legitimate family moved to Cape Giraldo, Missouri, before 1860. There, Jason became a state legislator. With the on-coming Civil War he formed his own Confederate company, commissioned himself a colonel and they fought under Jeff Thompson, the famous Missouri Swamp Fox. They were very good in fighting Yankee boats going up and down the Mississippi River.

After the Civil War Jason was elected a state representative. After some years, before 1870, he and some others were accused of conducting some type of land fraud, and heir collecting fraud, where they would show up at a decease’s estate saying the deceased owed them money. That is what they were accused of, I don’t know how true it is, I do know politics can get dirty.

By 1870 Jason and his family was living in Greene County, Arkansas. Again, he was elected a state representative.

By this time he had went through at least three wives and had a trail of at least 15 children, and maybe 16. *

Interesting, the Trail of Tears trail from North Carolina to Oklahoma starts right in the Macon County, Area, and goes through Cape Giraldo, Missouri, and Greene County, Arkansas. So, possibly, Jason knew all three places before he settled down at each place.

*In Macon County he once applied for a sizable loan. An asset specialist visited his home to list what he was putting up for collateral for the loan. There was some live stock, some farm equipment, and also listed were two slaves. A woman slave, age about 30, and a daughter slave, about 3, with a yellow complexion. The specialist probably wrote down the words "yellow compexion" with a smirk on his face.