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Hunter Brothers Robert, William and David
The Hunter Brothers of Ayre County, Scotland
emigrated to America with their parents in 1844. Hearty and adventurous,
the Hunter Brothers were eager for excitement.
David,
the youngest of the three, joined the Union Army in 1861 at the
age of 17 and fought with Gen. William T. Sherman during the historic
March to the Sea. Robert, the eldest, and his brother William prospected
for gold in Colorado and Arizona during the Gold Rush years of the
mid-1860s.
By 1865, the three Hunter Brothers had returned to the Midwest,
where they were eventually recruited by William F. "Buffalo
Bill" Cody to hunt buffalo needed for hungry workers laying
railroad tracks across the continent.
In
1873, along with Albert G. Evans, the brothers founded Hunter and
Evans, a livestock commission company, with offices in Ft. Worth,
East St. Louis, Illinois and Kansas City. The Ft. Worth offices
were located at the corner of Main and Exchange Streets in the developing
Stockyards District. When the railroad linked Ft. Worth to other
principal cities in 1876, Hunter and Evans organized Texas’
first railway shipment of cattle to market.
As the turn of the century drew near, William Hunter worked out
of the Ft. Worth office as a cattle buyer traveling by horseback
from Montana to Mexico. Robert directed cattle marketing and ranching
ventures for Hunter and Evans and thereafter founded Texas Pacific Coal & Oli Company in Thurber, Texas. David managed the Hunter
brothers ranching operations, including the H3 ranch. The trio remained
close throughout their lives. Their love of the West and pioneering
spirit lives on at H3 Ranch, Live Hickory Wood Grill.
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