John Hart Hunter

John Hart Hunter (c. 1805 – February 1872) is recognized as the father of the American college fraternity system. He founded the Kappa Alpha Society (KA) in 1825 at Union College.

Early life

John Hart Hunter was born in the month of May, sometime between 1805 and 1807. His father, John Hunter, immigrated from Dublin, Ireland to Philadelphia in 1805 and then soon to New York where he worked as a bookkeeper. The elder John Hunter married Sarah Hart of White Plains. Hunter, a superb mathematician, soon gave up business for teaching. He also passed on his love for scholarship to his only son, John Hart Hunter. The younger Hunter deveoped his early education by extensive reading at the Apprentices' Public Library in New York.

College Life

John Hart Hunter entered college directly into the Junior Class at Union in 1824. He quickly became one of the leading academic scholars of the school at the age of only 17. When Arthur Burtis Jr. entered Union in 1825 (also as a Junior following two years at Columbia), President Nott personally insisted Hunter take him under his wing as roommate. Thus Hunter's plans for a single room were disrupted, and indirectly President Nott had set the stage for the foundation of Kappa Alpha. On November 26, 1825, John Hart Hunter founded the Kappa Alpha Society, the world's first Greek letter social fraternity, along with eight other students: six of them seniors in the class of 1826, and two juniors of the class of 1827.

After Union

Upon graduating near the top of his class at Union in 1826, Hunter was admitted to the Princeton Theological Seminary, from which he was called in 1828 as pastor of the Congregational Church of Fairfield, Connecticut. During his six-year tenure at Fairfield, he developed into a powerful preacher. Hunter married Julia Maria Judson, a well-educated member of a prominent Stratford, Connecticut, family.

In 1857, Hunter moved west to Missouri with his son James in hopes of improving the financial situation of his growing family. They had hoped to profit from land that Hunter had bought several years earlier. Hunter put the land to work for industrial purposes rather than simple farming. He later traded the land in Missouri for deeds to land in Texas. Hunter died on either February 11 or 22, 1872, at the hospital in Galveston, Texas. His final resting place is unknown, because the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 destroyed records of his death.

Julia Maria Judson Hunter passed away at the age of 95 on Saturday, October 14, 1905 at her home in New York City.