- Date Of Birth: May 4, 1922
- Date Of Death: August 18, 2015
- State: Illinois
Daniel Jackson Hunter, 93, of rural LaMoille died peacefully of natural causes at his home, surrounded by his family and his caregiver, Lina, on Aug. 18, 2015.
Mr. Hunter was born May 4, 1922, to David and Agnes (Buckman) Hunter of rural Arlington on the family home farm. He married Teresa Agnes Schwamberger on Oct. 3, 1949, in St.
Upon graduating from high school in 1940, Daniel began a long and distinguished career in agriculture with his father and brothers consisting primarily of animal-husbandry and grain. He was a fine steward of the land and was a noted cattle and swine feeder. He took great pride in being a farmer and was methodical in all aspects of operating a farm. He expected and demanded the best and enjoyed working the fields, planting and harvesting. However, his true passion was cattle feeding where his father, he and his brothers fed cattle for a combined 50 years. During his cattle feeding years he would come in for noon dinner and listen to the WGN radio market report where they would announce on air that “David Hunter and Sons topped the cattle market at Chicago Union Stockyards with prime fatted cattle.”
He acquired many primary source documents and photos of his families farming operation from the 1920s through the 1970s, and enjoyed sharing them with his family during holidays. Among them are purchase orders dating from the 1920s through the 1940s when his father would take the passenger train to buy cattle at Kansas City and have them shipped back via railroad. Also, there are many photos covering a 60-year time span of his family’s respective farmsteads showing all the livestock and the many buildings that were constructed over this time, as well as sale receipts dating from 1919 on through the 1970s of livestock sold through the Chicago Union Stockyards. Included also are photos of all kinds of farm machinery he and his family utilized over a 50-year period on their farms. He was an active participant and saw agriculture evolve over 85 years, and how the transition was from an animal-husbandry enterprise to one of all grain farming.
He spoke in reverence to how life was during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the war years of the 1940s, and the economic upturn after World War II. As a child he and his brothers would gather around the radio and listen to the news about baseball great, Babe Ruth.
Daniel was a wonderful husband to his wife and a loving father and grandfather. Many years were spent in mid August with his wife and children on their summer vacations at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin where he enjoyed the beach and boating with his family.
He is survived by his loving wife of 66 years; four sons, Daniel A. Hunter of Arlington, Robert Hunter of LaMoille, Kevin Hunter of Savannah, Ga., and David Hunter of West Brooklyn; five grandchildren, Ryan and Kevin Gutierrez of San Antonio, Texas, Justin and Adam Hunter, students at University of Illinois, and Elizabeth Hunter of Savannah, Ga.; and one brother, James Hunter of rural Arlington.
He is preceded in death by his daughter, Teresa Agnes Hunter Gutierrez of Laredo, Texas, as well as four brothers, John in 1939, Joseph in 1951, Paul of Brisbane, Australia in 2000, and Marion in 2003.
