Born at Windygates, Fife, Scotland on 12 July 1857, he came to Winnipeg in 1882 and worked as a building contractor for almost 50 years. For 25 years prior to retirement, when he moved to the Pacific coast, he was responsible for alterations and renovations at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange and Great West Life Company. He and wife Julia Ada Jones (1864-1930) had eight children: George Hunter (1884-?), John P. Hunter (1886-?), Sarah P. Hunter (1890-?), Ada Ethel Hunter (1896-?), William Robert Hunter (1898-?), Stanley Hunter (1899-?), Elizabeth “Bessie” Hunter (1903-?), and Mable Hunter (1905-?, wife of Frederick Syaney Barnes). He was a member of the Canadian Order of Foresters. He died at Portland, Oregon on 27 July 1936 and was buried in the St. John's Cathedral Cemetery.
Some of his construction work in Manitoba included:
Building
Location
Year
Status
501-503 Sherbrook Street, Winnipeg
1906
Destroyed by fire (13 August 2026)
Birth registrations [George Hunter, Ada Ethel Hunter, William Robert Hunter, Stanley Hunter, Elizabeth Hunter, Mabel Hunter], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1901 and 1911 Canada censuses, Automated Genealogy.
Marriage registration [Mabel Hunter, Frederick Syaney Barnes], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Death registration [Julia Ada Hunter], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“John T. Hunter dies; was pioneer builder, contractor in city,” Winnipeg Free Press, 29 July 1936, page 12.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Jordan Makichuk and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 15 August 2026
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