My HUNTER Genealogy, Grandparents

                                           Frank P. Hunter and Minnie V. Tyson, Wedding Day

Frank Paris Hunter, a young man

My grandparents on my father's side are Frank Paris Hunter (1879 - 1950) and Minnie Victoria Tyson (1879-1948).  They were married in Cherokee County, Georgia  21 December  1899.  They were both 20 years old when they married.

Frank was  born in Grandbury, Hood County, Texas.  His parents were  William A. Trammell/Hunter* and Emaline Ray.

Frank told me he was named Frank Paris because he was born in transient traveling with his family from Paris, Texas, to Franklin, North Carolina.  They did not make it to North Carolina.  The instead  stopped in a little community just north of Woodstock, Georgia,  called Andersonville**.    His father William fought at the nearby Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, was shot in the knee, and recuperated at a private residence in Andersonville and made friends.  I think that is why they came back and settled in Cherokee County.   Of course, it is possible that  William was a fugitive from a crime in North Carolina (more later).

Frank was the 5th of seven children.  The two youngest were twins.

Frank grew up near Woodstock, Cherokee County, and Minnie Tyson.  He learned the trade of machinist.  His trade he worked at Glover Machinery in Marietta, Georgia,  Atlanta Newspapers, and Kraft in Alabama.

Early in their marriage Frank, after the oldest son, Herbert, was born, Frank apparently had an affair with a neighbor with the last name McClure.  Minnie's parents and William's parents pulled their money and paid for the pregnant McClure girl to move to Texas.  I think she went to the area Frank was born, because not long after that, Frank and his young family moved to Texas to the same area he was born. 

But they only stayed a short time, less than a year, and returned to Cherokee County, Georgia.  They had moved to Marietta, Cobb County, between 1906 and 1908.  Their son Robert "Bus" was born in Cherokee County in 1906 and the next son Walter Clarence "WC" was born in 1908.

Frank and Minnie had  nine children, eight sons and one daughter.

In 1948 Minnie died.  We moved in with Frank in his house.  For about two years he and I were buddies.  Some things I could talk him into and some things his practicality overruled my whining.   

When we moved in Frank kept his booze under the house in his secret place.  He knew I knew where it was but I guess he thought that was OK.  He had a group of friends that he worked with at his last job at a mattress factory on Butler Street.  I don't think they had a car or maybe even a home.  They seemed to be always on the go walking.  I think they kept Grandpa in booze.  I remember the mattress place burned down and I think it effected Frank more than we realized.  Another part of his life up in smoke.

He taught me to ride a bike.  He would get behind me and run holding my back fender in balance and then while running would let go and tell me to pedal.  It must have wore him out, but he didn't show it, except panting for breath.  He was an old man.

One time we were out in the front yard talking and a truck came by, slowed down and parked on the side of the road.  She asked him was he Frank Hunter and he said yes and she said she was his daughter.  They had a very emotional meeting.  That was the only time, as a grownup he saw her.  I suspect he saw her in Texas when she was a baby.

Once when he was drinking he started crying and said he often wondered what his real name was, because it was not Hunter.  He said his father was an orphan in Franklin, North Carolina.  Years later, I had that one clue which  would open up the whole Pandora's Box of genealogy.

Frank Paris Hunter died  20 March 1950, and is buried alongside his wife Minnie at Mountainview   Cemetery, Marietta, Georgia. 

Minnie Victoria Tyson was born near the crossroads of Bells Ferry Road and Highway 92, to the parents Obediah  Hargaves and  Nancy Elizabeth Huey.   She was the 2nd oldest of 9 children.

 As a child she helped on the Tyson's huge farm.  She helped with the sugar can mill, having a mule go round and round grinding the cane.

c1916

1st row, Ed, W.C.; 2nd row: Bus, Bee; 3rd row Herbert, Frank, and lastly, Minnie on Waterman Street.

As a parent she was the disciplinarian with the children.  My father said she would whip their a child if it was deserved.    On the other hand Frank threatened to "whip you and whip you good!" but never did.

Once Frank and Minnie had a financial problem and Minnie's brother helped them out.  She had to sign papers to sign away her land inheritance. 

Minnie Tyson and Frank P. Hunter, c1947-48