Heritage Gateways

Pioneer 1847 Companies

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Hunter, Lydia, 1846-47, Mormon Battalion Wife

With the Battalion rode women, wives of the officers. Mainly among them, Lydia, the wife of Captain Jesse O. Hunter. She gave birth soon after her arrival to the first child of American parents to be born in the southwest. A son, whom she named Diego Hunter, was born April 20, 1847. The mother died two weeks later, having walked nearly all the way from Council Bluffs. She was buried in the old cemetery behind what is now the fueling station on Point Loma. Mrs. Juanita Machado Wrightington, who assisted at the birth, raised the boy, and loved him as her own. Captain Hunter was appointed Indian Agent at San Luis Rey. Diego Hunter went there to herd cattle, died, and was buried there.

Source: Our Pioneer Heritage © Carter, Kate B., ed. 20 vols. Salt Lake City: International Society, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1958-1977. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Documents and images are exerpted by permission from the LDS Family History Suite CDROM from Ancestry.