Biographical Sketch of John M. Hunter
John M. Hunter was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, on May 2, 1842. Orphaned at five, he lived with guardians until adulthood. He moved to Iowa in 1857 and enlisted in the Sixth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, participating in key battles and sustaining a foot injury. Hunter reenlisted in 1863, serving with Sherman until the war’s end. After the war, he became a farmer, marrying Martha A. Wiles in 1869 and raising six children together.