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This biographical sketch of Bishop Hunter was penned by Orson F. Whitney, Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and was published in the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia.
Edward Hunter
1793 - 1883
He was Bishop of the Fifth Ward for about two years, until he left Nauvoo in the spring or summer of 1846, and joined the main body of the exiled Saints at Winter Quarters. He had been delayed by sickness for several weeks in Iowa. Bishop Hunter sustained a loss in property, by the exodus, of about fifty thousand dollars. He spent the winter of 1846-7 at Winter Quarters, where he acted as Bishop of the Seventh Ward. While there, preparing and fitting out for the West, he suffered much from sickness in his family. He was appointed captain of one hundred wagons, and followed in the wake of the Pioneers six or eight weeks after their departure.
Pursuing a trackless course, but meeting with something new and interesting every day to relieve the otherwise toilsome and dreary journey, he and his company arrived in Great Salt Lake valley Sept. 29, 1847. Says the Bishop: "We were all well, but our teams were worn down. We had an open winter and our stock recruited. Our breadstuffs were very limited and we used to get roots from the Indians and dig them ourselves. The Mormon Battalion came, bringing gold, but no flour. Flour sold at fifty cents per pound."
Elder Hunter was appointed Bishop of the South Fort, and in February, 1849, he was chosen Bishop of the 13th Ward, Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1849, he was sent back by the First presidency to the Missouri river, to superintend the emigration of the poor Saints to the Valley. He took with him funds for this purpose amounting to five thousand dollars, and thus set in motion the vast emigrating enterprise which has peopled with souls from two hemispheres the mountain vales of Utah.
He returned to the Valley Oct. 10, 1850. During his absence the death of one of his dearest friends took placeâ€â€Presiding Bishop Newel K. Whitney, who expired Sept. 23, 1850. Bishop Hunter was chosen to succeed Bishop Whitney in the presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood, April 7, 1851. His counselors, for a year or more, were Presidents Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball [Note from Grampa Bill: This is an amazing assertion that two of the very men who had ordained Bishop Hunter should be his counselors! That the President of the Melchizedek Priesthood should be a counselor in the Presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood. Further, this assertion is not corroborated by either the Encyclopedia of Mormonism or the Church Almanac, both of which list Bishop Hunter's Counselors. Yet one cannot believe that Elder Orson F. Whitney, himself an Apostle, would make an error of this magnitude. It seems likely that these two great men humbled themselves and served the Lord by counseling his newly called Presiding Bishop but were not formally set apart as his Counselors.]; afterwards Bishops Leonard W. Hardy and Jesse C. Little were appointed to fill those positions, and later on Bishop Robert T. Burton took the place vacated by Bishop Little
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