“Jay” Hunter married Sara Mae Trent, November 11, 1922 (see Emory Trent).  They have four living children: James F. of Coleman, Mary Louise (Hunter) Glass of Austin, Norma Lee (Hunter) Briscoe and Donald Ray “Don” Hunter of Midland.  “Jay” died January 13, 1976, having lived in Coleman since 1969.  Mae Hunter is still living in Coleman, near her son, James.

Excerpts of various conversations: Jay: “We had a bad drought in 1906 and 1918.  I’ve heard mamma talk about the one in 1906.  All of 1917 was dry.  Papa made 7 bales of cotton in 1917.  In 1918, we never put a sack in the field.  We’d got a bale sacking over that 60 acre field.  We got married in 1922 - that was a wet year; made a good crop.  James was born on the Jay Gould place, Louise on the Gates place and Norma, in ‘29, on the Morris place.  We were on the Morris place in ‘28, ‘29’, ‘30, and ‘31.  We were living on the river place when Don was born.  I had a big crop on the Morris place one year.  I made 84 bales of cotton; picked it all by hand.  In ‘32 I bought the place at Rockwood.  I don’t know how we kept from getting killed plowing by them mules.  I’ve plowed lots of times when there would be 7 or 8 of us plowing in the field.  We had a pair of mules - they were two and three years old when Papa bought ‘em.  We called ‘em Mike and Julie.  When he bought ‘em they weren’t broke.  They stayed together all their lives - they were 24 and 25 when they died.  We used to know people that would trade horses: have a wagon, have a whole bunch tied around it, go through the country from one trade day to the next.  First Monday was Coleman’s trade day, 3rd Monday was Cross Plains.  I’ve made ‘em both.”

Jay Hunter raised lots of cotton on rented land and fought the grasshoppers and boll weevils.  He also suffered through the droughts, dust storms and hailstorms.  He was a man of high integrity.  He worked from a young age at jobs that called for hard labor and perseverance.  He was a man of few words and had a calm temperament that was not easily aroused.