*

Bill Eddleman

Local History

Bill Eddleman, Ph.D. Oklahoma State University, is a native of Cape Girardeau County who has conducted genealogical research for over 25 years. He retired from Southeast Missouri State as Professor of Biology in 2016, and has been Associate Director of the Cape Girardeau Research Center, State Historical Society of Missouri, since July 2017.

John Dunn Hunter surviving Indian captive or charlatan?

Saturday, March 20, 2021

In 1823, the book, "Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America" appeared in Philadelphia. The author, John Dunn Hunter, claimed Kickapoo Indians massacred his family and captured him at age 3, in about 1801. The band later moved west to what is now eastern Kansas, where Indians captured him again. He ended with the Osage tribe until 1816. During this time, a band of Osage and Dunn Hunter supposedly traveled to the Pacific Ocean. White fur traders took him in, introduced him to frontier society, and gave him the surname of "Hunter."

To continue reading
For more than 115 years, the Southeast Missourian has written the first draft of local history. We have aspired to enrich, entertain, educate and inform. Our core values have remained firm: truth, service, quality, integrity and community. Support our mission.