John Alpheus Carter
The Carter Family of which John A. Carter is a representative has lived long in Grant county, and has been characterized by many of the more substantial virtues of citizenship and private industry. The following article refers briefly to the main points in the family history since the beginning of the Grant County residence, and mentions the different members of the family.
John Alpheus Carter was one of the family of Isaac W. and Phebe (Whitson) carter. Isaac W. Carter came from Clinton County, Ohio in 1855. Two years earlier he had married a Grant County woman, Miss Phebe Whitson. She was a daughter of Amos Whitson, a pioneer of Liberty Township in the Bethel Friends neighborhood. Her father moved to Valley Mills many yeas before his death. Phebe Whitson had three sisters, Mrs. Ann Shugart, Mrs. Hannah Ellis, and Mrs. Mary Metcalf, all of whom reared families in Grant County. Isaac W. Carter also had a sister, Mrs. Louisa Walthall, who reared a family in this county. Isaac and Phebe Carter were among the best known pioneer Quaker families in Grant County, and both were useful citizens in the Bethel community. He always looked out for the welfare of his family and she was a woman to go about the neighborhood wherever there was sickness and need of neighborly ministrations. Her death occurred at the family homestead, and he died at the home of a daughter in Marion, having abandoned the country as a place to live, although he always maintained citizenship in Liberty, caring more to vote in that township.
The sons and daughters of Isaac W. and Phebe (Whitson) Carter are: John A. carter; Joseph E. carter; Mrs. Louise C. Harmon; and Mrs. Ida C. Kem; William A. Carter, deceased, and Alice and Rosetta Carter, who died in childhood. All the other children have families about them.
William A. Carter, now deceased, married Miss Anna May Jay, and their children are: Chester, Eli, Jennie and David. Chester Carter married Miss Chestie Wise, and has two children, Ilene and Margaret. Eli Carter married Miss Dessie Hubet, and has a son, Hubert Carter. Joseph E. carter married Miss Della Coggeshall, now deceased, and their children are Pearl, Earl, Ray who married Miss Marie Kelly and Arthur who married Miss Tabitha Emmons. Mrs. Louise C. Harmon is the wife of J. F. Harmon and their children are Madonna, Frances and Robert and a daughter Glyde, who died in childhood. Mrs. Ida C. Kem is the wife of Oren E. Kem (see sketch of Augustin Kem), and their children are Edith and Carter Kem.
John Alpheus Carter, who recites the family history, married Miss Minerva Hiatt, and their children are: Omar Isaac Carter, Mrs. Lena H. Moore and Miss Hazel May Carter and Harry, who died in infancy. Mrs. Lena H. Moore is the wife of E. L. Moore, and has three children, Harold, Herbert and John Moore.
The will of Isaac W. Carter provided that the three sons have the farm land and that the two daughters be paid in cash for their interests, and thus the homestead remained in the family name. William A. Carter who became owner of the old home, was the first to die, and a son lives on the arm, while Mrs. Carter lives in Fairmount.
John A. Carter left the farm several years before the death of his father, although he continued to reside in the country for a few years after taking a position as rural mail carrier. He began his duties in that position on July 16, 1900, while the system was still an experiment in Grant County. The first carrier over a country mail route out of Marion was A. B. Comer, and his service began in September, 1899. The second was L. E. Rinehart, who is still doing duty, while Mr. Carter has been on route No. 3 for more than thirteen years, and is the second oldest rural carrier. All the rural routes in Grant County were completely covered for the first time on August 15, 1902, a little more than two years after Mr. Carter first began delivering mail to country patrons. In all his thirteen years he has missed less than a week except for his annual vacation, and he has always had the friendly support of his patrons.
The Carter Family has always been relied upon in the community where these sons and daughters were reared, and their friendly interests will always remain there, although J. E. Carter is now the only representative of the family in the township of Liberty. When the Strawtown Road was built -the second gravel road in Grant County, I. W. Carter, the father, was a promoter, and with two neighbors, Willis Cammack and George Davis, undertook the contract for the mile beginning at the Liberty-Franklin Line, and passing the Carter farm to the Bethel Road. The contract fro the next half mile was taken by Tristam Conner, David M. V. Whitson, and Richard Jay. The neighbors thus concerned worked much together in developing the community, and it is that kind of cooperation that counts for community advancement. Isaac Carter, Willis Cammack and David Whitson owned a horse-power threshing machine together for several years. That was at a time when it required many more men and horses to thresh the crop than now, and the dinners served all over the neighborhood were the products of many women clubbing together. Threshing was always a social event and there has always been a subsequent friendship among the younger generation of all those families.
In speaking of this old neighborhood policy and the Carter participation, J. A. Carter said the rule was "Always go or send a hand," no matter what was going on in the community that required cooperation. And even while the interview was in progress, arrangements were being made over the telephone for all the town relatives to go out to the old farm on the following day for the annual threshing event. Although Isaac W. and Phebe Carter are gone, they will not soon be forgotten in the neighborhood centering about Bethel Friends Church in Liberty. J. A. Carter's mail route is past the old home, and while he no longer follows the plow, he is in daily communication with the people who look after affairs, and the Carter ambition, as in the past, is to be abreast of the times in everything. The young people in the second and third generations have all been given splendid educational advantages, and citizenship is of a high type in the family. The Carter farm in Liberty has always been a model and when results are in evidence anywhere the crops there have been abundant. The Carter burial plot is near the entrance to Friends Cemetery, and a beautiful shaft marks the last resting place of the family.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.