Hunter (Clifford B.) Collection, 1886-1998, bulk Bulk, 1910-1960

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Summary

Title:
Clifford B. Hunter Collection
Dates:
1886-1998, bulk Bulk, 1910-1960
Creators:
Hunter, Clifford B.
Abstract:
This collection consists of photos, correspondence, school yearbooks, publications, and other papers relating to Hunter’s education, businesses activities and genealogy. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs and Hunter’s genealogical research.
Extent:
2.2 Linear feet (5 boxes)
Language:
and The materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

Clifford B. Hunter Collection, 2010-13, History San Jose Research Library, San Jose, California 95112-2599

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of photos, correspondence, school yearbooks, publications, and other papers relating to Hunter’s education, businesses activities and genealogy. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs and Hunter’s genealogical research.

Biographical / historical:

Clifford Brooks Hunter (1908-1998) was a technology entrepreneur and founder of Hunter Technologies Corporations, and long-time resident of the Santa Clara. Hunter was born in 1908 in San Jose, California to Augustus B. Hunter (1884-1960) and Mary Jane Hunter (nee Malley). He graduated from Santa Clara Union High School (SCHS) in 1928 and went to work on various projects with his father. Hunter married Delores Nalley in 1939 and worked for a time at Signal Oil Co. installing hoists and air compressors before he began selling automotive equipment in the Santa Clara valley. Hunter stopped working after a heart attack in 1950, but in 1968 began a circuit board company with his wife, their daughter Judi, and son-in-law, Jim Craik. Among Hunter Technologies’ clients were IBM, NASA-Ames, and the U. S. Navy. The company was sold in 1987, after nearly 20 years of being held by the Hunter family. Hunter more or less withdrew from the company after its sale, but remained active in the Santa Clara community as a Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce and Santa Clara American (the city’s weekly newspaper) booster, a scoutmaster, and a 50-year Mason. He was also active in planning class reunions for the SCHS class of 1928 and was very active in performing genealogical research on the origins of his family, who had been early Santa Clara Valley settlers. Hunter was a long-time friend with journalist Dick Barrett (another SCHS 1928 graduate), a former columnist for the Mercury News.

Clifford B. Hunter marked the fourth generation of Hunters in the Santa Clara Valley. Augustus Brooks Hunter (1826-1902), was the first of the Hunter clan to reside in the area, deciding to locate to the Santa Clara Valley in about 1852 for health reasons. Augustus Brooks Hunter married Ann Rebecca Rutledge (d. 1905) in 1855. Rutledge was a descendant of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the cousin of another Ann Rutledge, who was purportedly the first sweetheart of Abraham Lincoln. In Santa Clara, Augustus established a 160 acre ranch and a pear orchard. Augustus was elected to the California Legislature in 1881, serving two terms, after which, in 1888, he became a San Jose councilman.

Frank A. Hunter (1860-1935), Augustus Brooks Hunter’s son, continued the family’s orchard interests until his death. Frank married Lydia A. Ortley in 1882. Ortley was the daughter of Capt. J.J. Ortley, who sailed around the Horn to California in 1849 and later ran a fleet of packet boats that operated between Alviso and San Francisco, carrying quicksilver and produce. Captain Ortley married Almira Wade in 1858, whose family came to California in 1849 through Death Valley as part of the Jayhawker Party.

Frank’s son, another Augustus ‘Gus” Brooks Hunter (1884-1960), continued the family pear orchard after his father’s death, and was the operator of an ambulance company and a Santa Clara County well inspector.

Acquisition information:
Contact History San Jose for donor and accession information.
Processing information:

The collection was processed by an intern in 2010.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by History San Jose
Date Prepared:
09/21/2011
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2011-09-21T13:13-0700

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open to the public for research by appointment.

Terms of access:

Property rights reside with History San Jose. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact History San Jose Research Library.

Preferred citation:

Clifford B. Hunter Collection, 2010-13, History San Jose Research Library, San Jose, California 95112-2599

Location of this collection:
1661 Senter Road
San Jose, CA 95112, US
Contact:
(408) 287-2290
research@historysanjose.org
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