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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Independence County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Thomas E. Carter, an extensive property owner of Sulphur Rock, was born in Prince William County, Va., at the mouth of Bull Run, on the 3d of October, 1824, and is a son of James P. and Elizabeth (Davis) Carter, both of whom were also born in Prince William County, Va., the former’s birth occurring on the 23d of May, 1785, and the latter’s on the 23d of October, 1786. The father died in 1860, and his wife at the age of eighty-five years. They were married in their native county, and there resided until 1838, when they came to Arkansas and located in Independence County, where both spent the remainder of their days. Mr. Carter was a carpenter and house-joiner, at which he worked, in connection with farming, all his life. The farm on which he located on coming to Independence County is situated three miles northeast of Batesville, and is known, far and near, as the old Carter place, and is noted for chalybeate springs located thereon. The paternal grandfather was born in England, and came to the United States before the Revolution, in which war he served on the side of the colonists. The maternal grandparents were William and Elizabeth Davis, and were extensive planters of Virginia. Mrs. Davis was a native of Scotland, and lived to be one hundred years old. When the Carter family first came to Arkansas, Independence County was very thinly populated, and the farm on which they settled was an immense canebrake. Schools and churches were very few and far between, but our subject, Thomas E., acquired a fair education, his teachers being U. E. Fort and Burr Lee. At the age of twenty-one years he commenced to clear a farm near Batesville, but sold out in 1856, and moved to Big Bottom, where he opened a mercantile establishment on the plantation owned by Col. Morgan Magness, where he continued his enterprise until the breaking out of the war. In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate service, and after the close of hostilities returned home and resumed his mercantile enterprises at Akron, as a member of the firm of Owen, Moore & Co., but in three years sunk $150,000. He then retired to his farm and took up agriculture and stock-raising as an occupation, in which he has amassed another large fortune. His first business transaction in life was to purchase a farm for $600, on credit, and he now owns 800 acres of some of the finest bottom land in the State, besides other valuable property. Mrs. Eliza (Adams) Hulsey, a native of Fayette County, Tenn., born in 1825, became his wife in 1856, but her death occurred three years later, she having borne a family of two children: Susan, wife of Allen Bradford, and Elizabeth, who died when quite young. On the 15th of August, I860, Mr. Carter wedded Miss Mary Adams, a sister of his first wife. She too was born in Fayette County, Tenn., and died the year after her marriage. In 1863 Nancy Ann Magness became his third wife. She is a daughter of Josiah Magness, and was born in Fayette County, Tenn., October 23, 1834, and, by Mr. Carter, is the mother of four children: Mary, wife of Thomas Nisbett; Noah, Alice and Eddie. Mr. Carter has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for forty-nine years, and in his political views is a Democrat. He belongs to the I. O. O. F., and has become a prominent citizen of the county, owing to his sound judgment, progressive ideas and unimpeachable honesty.

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This family biography is one of 158 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Independence County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Independence County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Independence County, Arkansas family biographies here: Independence County, Arkansas Biographies

View a map of 1889 Independence County, Arkansas here: Independence County, Arkansas Map

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