Fred B. Hunter, the gentleman whose brief biography is herewith presented, has been a resident of the city of Grand Rapids for more than twenty years, and has become widely and favorably known throughout the city and county by reason of his personal contact with so many people in the discharge of his official duties.

Mr. Hunter comes from the historical old city of Norfolk, Va., where his birth occurred on the 11^th day of November, 1868. His father, who had been a member of the Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry throughout the war of the Rebellion, had, at the close of the war, brought his family south, and had been assigned to duty at the Portsmouth navy yard, where he remained for several years, until failing health brought him back north to Illinois, where his death occurred in 1878.

The mother, whose maiden name was Kate Randall, resides with her son in this city.

Fred B. Hunter received his educational training in the schools of Grand Rapids, of which city he became a resident in 1878. He fitted himself for a commercial career by completing a full course in a business college, and after receiving a certificate of graduation, accepted a clerkship with a mercantile firm, continuing in that capacity for different houses until 1889. In that year he became substitute mail carrier for the Grand Rapids post-office, and within a short time was promoted to a clerical position inside, the duties of which he discharged until made assistant superintendent of the city delivery. By reason of great efficiency displayed in the position mentioned, Mr. Hunter, in October, 1898, was promoted to the superintendent of city delivery, a place of much responsibility, and he has since attended to the duties connected therewith in a manner creditable to himself and satisfactory to the department. Mr. Hunter’s several promotions followed in quick succession and show him thoroughly honest and withal popular with the public, who have ever found him to be a painstaking and courteous official. He was married in this city in August, 1889, to Miss Minnie Smith, who was born on the 31^st day of July, 1870, in Canada. This union has been blessed by the birth of one child, a son, Leo Hunter.

Mr. Hunter for some time has been a member of the Letter carriers’ band of Grand Rapids, an organization of much more than local repute. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Blue lodge, No. 34, and chapter No. 7 of this city, besides which he is a member of the Royal Arcanum. A republican in his political affiliations and having the courage of his convictions in all questions of public moment, he is not a partisan or aspirant for official honors. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Hunter is at No. 818 Garden street, and there he meets his many friends and associates with a hospitality liberal in its dispensation and genuine in all the term implies.