Matthew is a Carter that people remember – or at least remember hearing about. Born in Appomattox County, Virginia (as stated on his marriage registration), his family moved the approximately 200 miles to Fayette County, Virginia (later West Virginia) by the time he was four years old in 1858, as that is where his sister Fidelia was born. Matthew was the oldest of 12 known children. He would have been 6 years old when Virginia seceded from the Union and 11 at the end of the Civil War. Fayette was one of 50 counties that formed the new state of West Virginia at the start of the war and remained with the Union. Sentiments of the residents were very mixed. Matthew’s family owned slaves before the war as did his grandparents. Much of the extended family still lived in Virginia. There were also two battles in Fayette County in 1861 that likely impacted the Carter family.
In 1870 Matthew was living with his parents in WV and at the age of 15 was listed as a farm laborer. In 1880 he was living in Wea Township, Miami County, Kansas. He was a farm laborer in the Thomas P. Lewis household. However, he returned to West Virginia and on 8 Nov 1881 he married Martha Frances Coleman in Fayette County. His son Clarence Walton was born there on 26 September 1882. Matthew’s father died the following year. By 1885 Matthew was back in Kansas with his young family. His brother Mason was also in Miami County living with the TP Lewis family.
Matthew and
Martha remained in Miami County for the rest of their lives. Matthew died there in 1915 and Martha in
1934. They are buried in Louisburg
Cemetery. His obituary reads in part:
“In 1878
he came west to KS and settled on the old Banty farm...and five years later he
bought the present home...Matt Carter was a clean, honest, up-right man...In
temperment he was mild, conciliatory and candid; and yet remarkable for an
uncompromising firmness. He seemed to
gain confidence from his fellow man..."
Louisburg Herald 3-25-1915
William
Carter (1831-1883) – Tom’s 2nd Great-grandfather
William was born in 1831 in what is now Appomattox County,
Virginia, though at the time of his birth (until 1845) the area was the
northwest tip of Prince Edward County. His
parents had married in 1820 and his older brother Samuel was born in 1824. His mother, Martha, must have died when
William was quite young as his father remarried in 1835.
In 1850 William was living in the household of Nicholas
Pamplin. His occupation was tanner. Family notes say that William and his father,
Theodrick, learned to be tanners and farmers on the Pamplin Plantation, owned
by Nicholas Pamplin, a wealthy farmer and tanner. About 1854-55, Samuel and William Carter made
the trip to Fayette County, Virginia, now West Virginia. They purchased land from John J. Coleman and
settled near Laurel Creek and the community of Dempsey a few miles west of
Fayetteville.
In the 1960-1970’s Shirley Donnelly, a columnist with the Beckley Post Herald wrote a column
called Yesterday and Today. He wrote several stories about this
neighborhood and included information about the Carter families. He notes that William and Samuel were early
settlers near Laurel Creek and that the land was rugged. They and other settlers from Virginia brought
slaves which helped the effort to clear and work the land. This is corroborated by the 1860 slave schedule
that shows both men owned a few slaves.
Mr. Donnelly reports that upon emancipation, the male slaves left but
some of the women remained with the families and are buried in Carter Cemetery.
Before moving to Fayette County, William married Martha J (likely
Sullivan or Sullivant). Their oldest sons
Matthew and Richard were born in Appomattox County in 1854 and 1855. Their third son Theodrick was probably born
in Fayette County. He is on the 1860
census as three years old and there is a record of William being in Fayette
County in 1856. The younger nine
children were all born there between 1858 and 1874. The 1860 census shows William to be a farmer
and tanner. His real estate is valued at
$2000 and his personal property at $4000, reflecting the value of his tannery
and people enumerated as slaves (female age 18, male age 16, female age 13,
male age 8, and male age 5).
In his 1987 book, Cabins
of the Loop…, L. Neil Darlington writes
William had learned the
business of making leather from a tanner named Pamplin back in Prince Edward
County, and he seems to have lost no time in starting his own business here on
Carter Branch…During the Civil War, he was in the government service as a
tanner. The Carter tan yard was a few
hundred feet below the house. The
tanning vats were in a narrow bottom beside the branch and opposite the present
home of Eugene Wolford…The importance of Carter’s contribution (footwear) to
the comfort, convenience, and welfare of the settlers of the Loop can hardly be
over-estimated.
No records have been found of any service during the
war. However, William’s younger brother
Theodoric did serve in the Virginia Artillery and there were likely other
family who served and died.
In 1870 William and Martha are living with their nine oldest
children in Fayette County. William is
listed as a farmer and the value of his real estate has gone down to $1000 and
personal property to $450, typical of what happened in southern states after
the Civil War (in fact, William filed for bankruptcy in 1869). However, Darlington goes on to write that
…after the Civil War, Carter
replaced his log house with a two-story frame dwelling with dressed stone
chimneys, ornate stairway, and mantel personalized with the square and compass
of the Masonic Order to which he was evidently proud to belong.
On the 1880 census, at the age of 49, William is listed as
a farmer. Seven of the twelve children
listed in the household – Theodore (23), Mason (19), Samuel T (14), John (12),
Julia (11), Ellen (8), and Henry (6). Of the other children, Matthew was living
in Miami County, Kansas; Richard was married and living nearby with his wife
and two young children; Fidelia had married and was also nearby with her
husband and three small children; and Emma (Samuel’s twin) had recently married. A daughter, Mary, had died at the age of
four.
William Carter died 10 December 1883. He was only 52 years old. The death register lists the cause of death
as dyspepsia, literally a term for indigestion or heartburn, but known as a
symptom of a heart attack. Family notes
say that Martha died in 1911 but I have found no record of her after 1880. William is supposed to be buried on a ridge behind
the house.
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