San Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM CARTER
WILLIAM CARTER was born in
Hancock County, Kentucky, December 25, 1825, his parents being Moses Davis and
Ann (Thorp) Carter, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of North
Carolina. When our subject was about a year and a half old, his mother having
died at that time, he was taken to Caldwell County, where he was raised by his
grandmother, his mother’s mother. His father, when William was a small boy,
moved to Missouri and settled in Clark County, where he lived till his death in
1851. In 1848 or ‘49 our subject went to Missouri, where he remained until the
fall of 1852. He stayed in Clark County until 1853, when he started for
California. The trip was made across the plains with ox teams, the party
consisting of Mr. Carter, his wife and one child, together with Mrs. Carter’s
father, George M. Carlock, his wife and family. They
arrived in Placerville after a journey of four and a half months. Directly they
went to Kelsey, El Dorado County, where Mr. Carter engaged in mining that
winter. In the spring of 1854 he moved to Cañon creek, where he
worked in a saw-mill through the summer. He then moved upon a ranch two miles
from Georgetown and farmed it two years, then sold it, and commenced mining
again at the head of Irish creek, which occupation he carried on till he came
to this valley in 1860. He first bought a man’s claim of three eighty-acre
tracts, all adjoining. He then filed a pre-emption on 160 acres of it and the
other eighty he let lay until the railroad came through here and they took
possession of it, and Mr. Carter afterward bought it; he now owns altogether 240 acres. It was all wild land. The land is now
under the best improvements, all of which points to the energy and thrift of
its owner.
Mr. Carter has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1851, and of the Christian Church since about 1866, of which church he is a devoted member and has served as Deacon for more than fifteen years. Politically he has never taken any active part. As he says, he thinks it a man’s duty to vote and pay his taxes, which he has every year done, except when crossing the plains. He has voted the Democratic ticket always. He has served the people of Liberty Township as Justice of the Peace for two years in a most creditable manner.
Mr. Carter was married in Clark County,
Missouri, February 5, 1852, to Miss Elizabeth Carlock,
a native of Drake County, Ohio, where she was born September 15, 1834. Their
family consists of nine children, two sons and seven daughters, as follows:
Martha Ann, Mary Frances, Margaret Drucilla, Sarah
Elizabeth, William Edward, Emma Lee, Carrie Agnes, Myrtie
Estella and Albert Baker.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 395-396. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Genealogy Databases