Isaac Lyman Carter
Five years after the organization of Grant County as a separate civil government of Indiana, the Carter Family was planted in the wilderness along the Mississinewa in Jefferson Township. Nearly eight years have elapsed since they came to this region, and three generations, comprising many individuals have performed their duties and upheld their responsibilities as citizens and members of families, and the name has always been associated with honest worth and upright manhood and womanhood.
More than a century and a half ago, this family had its seat in New Hampshire. A few years before the Revolutionary War, Edward, the great-grandfather of Isaac Lyman Carter was born in Hollis, New Hampshire, April 22, 1770. He married Esther Powers, of the same place, and they lived and died there, Edward passing away September 18, 1826. There were a number of children in the family, including Isaac P. Carter, who was born in New Hampshire, probably at Hollis, July 3, 1793. The early youth was spent in New Hampshire, but he was probably married in Waldo County, Maine, where it is known that he lived for several years. In an early day, about the year 1825, he emigrated west to Ohio, landing in Muskingum County, Ohio, where he was a pioneer settler in the vicinity of Zanesville. There he followed farming, but in a few years his pioneer spirit led him to move on still farther west and in 1835 he arrived in Grant County, Indiana, locating on raw land in Jefferson Township, situated on the banks of the Mississinewa. A log cabin home was the first shelter of the Carter Family in Grant County, and Grandfather Isaac made a living partly by farming and partly by hunting and fishing. His labors were steadily directed toward the clearing and improvements of his land, and eventually a good homestead rewarded his efforts. For the construction of the second home replacing the old log cabin, a supply of brick was made, and from clay taken from the farm. That old brick house is still standing, but is no longer occupied as a dwelling. Isaac P. Carter spent his last years in that home, and died January 29, 1869. During his residence in Ohio he married Joanna Gage, and she was born June 9, 1802, in Waldo County, Maine and died April 1, 1863. They were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and possessed the kindly and substantial qualities of the old pioneer. Their family consisted of ten sons, and seven of those grew up and were married, as follows: Ira J., Howard, Joseph, Elijah, John H., Lewis and Oliver, all of whom were married and are now deceased. and all but Oliver had children. farming was their vocation, and very few members of the Carter Family in the various generations have followed any other vocation.
Ira J. Carter, father of Isaac L., was born in Muskingum County, near Zanesville, Ohio, March 15, 1822, and died near Matthews, in Grant County, March 21, 1899. At the time of the family migration to Grant County, in 1835, he was thirteen years of age, and here his years were spent until manhood, and he acquired an education much better than most of his contemporaries. He possessed talent both in penmanship, and in mathematics, and for a number of years taught school. For two years he served as justice of the peace, and many people were married in his office throughout his part of the county, and some of those marriages have endured happily to the present time. For many years he also did the work of a notary, and for twenty-seven years was postmaster of the place locally known as Trask Post Office, and office which was discontinued in 1901 under competition from the rural free delivery service. While attending to the various duties of these offices, he conducted his farm either directly or supervised its management, and was the owner of eighty acres of fine land. Throughout his career he voted and supported the Democratic arty. Ira J. Carter was married in Jefferson Township on July 25, 1844, to Eliza Ann Corn. Her birth occurred in Rush County, Indiana, June 5, 1825, and she is still living a venerable woman, though quite active in body and mind, eighty-eight years of age, a lovely old woman whose character has long been an asset in the community. She is a Baptist in religion and has been identified with church and its kindred activities for the greater part of a lifetime. Her age was eleven years when the family moved to Grant County, and her parents were Joseph and Nancy (Said) Corn. Her father was a native of Georgia, and moved in early life to Kentucky, where he married a native daughter of that State, and after two children had been born to them in Kentucky, Louisa and Lucinda, the family all moved to Rush County, Indiana. In rush County Mrs. Carter was born and also other children as follows: Permelia, Martha J., Joseph and John. All these children are now dead, except Mrs. Carter, and all except Louisa were married and had families of their own, some of them very large households, Joseph having twenty-one children by two wives.
The children born to Ira J. Carter and wife were: Permilia J., who died in infancy; Harriet, also deceased in infancy; Gilbert, who did not survive babyhood; J. Newton, a carpenter, who lives in Upland, Grant County, and ahs a family; Olive, who is the widow of John Kibby, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; Levi L., who is a farmer in Delaware County, and is married and has one daughter; Mary E., whose first husband was Noah Hardy, and whose second was Elmer Hiatt, and living now in Gary, Indiana, and there were three children by the second marriage. Isaac L.; Salina D., who died when seventeen years of age; Jerusha, who became the wife of John Crouch, living in Clark County, Indiana, and they have two sons and three daughters; Anna A., the wife of Wood Helms, a farmer in Fairmount Township, and their family consists of three sons and two daughters.
Isaac Lyman Carter was born in the house he still occupies, on October 30, 1860. That old homestead is in Section twenty-one of Jefferson Township. His home has always been in this locality and from boyhood he has followed farming successfully, and in a practical, progressive manner, which marks him as a true son of the soil. His place of eighty acres is well stocked with graded sheep, hogs, and cattle, and he is one of the extensive feeders in this part of the county. His buildings are good and substantial, and represent prosperous management.
Near the old home, Isaac L. Carter married for his first wife, Miss Mary N. Wilcoxon, who was born in Delaware County in 1848, and who died at her home in Jefferson Township, January 21, 1901. She was an active communicant of the Methodist Church. He six children are mentioned as follows: Glenn, whose home is with his father, and who is unmarried, is a graduate of Purdue University, and is now a seed and fertilizer inspector for the State of Indiana; Alivila Blanche, died at the age of fifteen months; R. Emory, who lives on a farm in Fairmount Township, married Miss Lula Goodnight, and their children are John and Blanche; John Burl, who is a graduate of the high school in the class of 1909, lives at home with his father on the farm; Asa E was graduated in the home schools, and is living with his father; Mary A. is a sophomore in the Matthews High School;. The present Mrs. carter was before her marriage Margaret Ann Fitch, who was born in Marion County, Indiana, February 26, 1869, was educated in Wabash County, and is a woman of thorough culture and an excellent housewife and mother. Her parents were John and Sarah (Wiley) Fitch, who were born respectively in Kentucky and Indiana, were married in Marion County of the latter State, and most of their lives were passed in Wabash County. Her father died in Huntington County in 1907, at the age of sixty-four, while his widow now lives in Andrews, Indiana, and is seventy-one years of age. The Fitch family are members of the Methodist Church. Mrs. Carter is the mother of three children: Lewis H., in the public schools; Sarah Ethlyn, aged two yeas; and Edith M. Mr. and Mrs. Carter belong to Kingsley Chapel Methodist Church, and Mr. Carter is a trustee and for a number of years was steward in the church. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.