77-year-old farmer killed in machinery accident in Cinnaminson
The incident took place on a farm that was settled in 1760 by an ancestor of the man who died, identified by police as John Howard Hunter.
A 77-year-old longtime Burlington County farmer died Sunday morning in a machinery accident at Hunter Farm in Cinnaminson, police said.
Police, who were called to the farm around 10:15 a.m., identified the victim as John Howard Hunter. He was the seventh generation to farm the land on Union Landing Road that was settled by an ancestor from Ireland in 1760, according to several profiles of the family.
Cinnaminson police said no additional information would be released while the incident was under investigation. No one answered the phone at the farm market Sunday afternoon.
A profile in a farming publication last year said that the seventh, eighth and ninth generations of the Hunter family were involved in the business. Ownership of the farm passed from John Howard Hunter to his son, also named John, in 2023, according to public records.
The 120-acre farm is best known for sweet corn and sweet potatoes, last year’s profile by American Farm said. The family plants 80 acres of sweet corn with about 20 plantings between early April and mid-July.
In addition to the farm market, the Hunters also have a wholesale business, American Farm said.
In a 2001 interview with former Inquirer food columnist Rick Nichols, John Howard Hunter described how the family had changed its approach to growing sweet corn. In the 1960s, the family planted all of its sweet corn at once to compete for business in New York and Boston.
Nichols reported Hunter’s description of “a nerve-racking race to harvest before New York state’s competing crop ripened, working through the night to load trucks serving the Boston market.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.