Born a slave, John Hunter lived to be 112. Then NC historian Ernest Dollar found his family.

In 1876, a writer for the Raleigh Sentinel sat down to interview an old, old man — a Raleigh native so aged he recalled clearing the forest to build Fayetteville Street, frightening deer and dodging bears.

He said he’d seen British troops in Raleigh before the city had a name. He’d seen burning buildings in the War of 1812. And after a century, he’d seen a lifetime of slavery abruptly end, offering him a short taste of freedom.

John Hunter lived to be 112 by history’s best guess, and until a few months ago, his name had almost totally vanished from Raleigh’s memory.

With luck and the internet, City of Raleigh Museum Director Ernest Dollar rescued him from wills buried in the state archive, articles printed in newspapers that no longer exist and a single line from the 1870 census.