My Genealogy Hound

JAMES G. L. CARTER The subject of our sketch is one of the earliest settlers of Jasper county, and may with becoming propriety be called one of the fathers in the settling of southwestern Missouri as well as this county; was born near the capital of the Buckeye State April 22, 1836. He immigrated with his father to Marion county, Ind., at four years of age, and again to Jasper county, this state, in 1841. His father, James Carter, died on the farm of his son in 1845, and his mother died some seven or eight years later. He was married in July, 1850, to Mary Cooley, who was born in Indiana but came to Jasper county when quite a small girl. The children’s names are Marion C., Thomas A., Isabelle, Corna, Dora, James, Athelene, and Sarah M., William, and Juliet, not now living. During the war Mr. Carter and family emigrated to Ft. Scott, Bourbon county, Kan., returning in 1865 to find his buildings burned, and persimmon and walnut growing and bearing upon the fields formerly cultivated. His farm of 325 acres is in most respects unsurpassed in the county for fertility and its topography. One hundred and forty acres are under cultivation; 80 acres sown to winter wheat averaged 20 bushels to the acre. The old log-hut has been superseded by a cut-stone, two-story house, which is situated in a fine, natural grove of tall, stately black walnuts, together with fine farms and fruitful orchards, about two miles northeast of Carterville. At the time he settled in Jasper county there were no towns and few people. As mills were hundreds of miles distant corn had to be soaked and then grated for meal. Turkeys, deer, Indians, and catamounts abounded. Mr. Carter remembers the first store in Carthage, kept by Geo. Raider, who, not being able to carry a very large assortment of dry goods, would put himself out to please the most fastidious. He one time sold a certain piece of calico to a lady for 12c a yard, and to another more particular, a dress of the same piece, having replaced it upon the shelf, and showing it to her, sold it for 25c a yard. Surely then as now, “there is no accounting for tastes.” Mrs. Carter is a member of the M. E. Church, and he, though making no profession, is a model of genuine good breeding and good nature. For many years a partial cripple and a sufferer, Mr. Carter has prospered and reared a large family, and is yet the peer of more able-bodied neighbors.