Ingham County Biographical Sketches



Mason J. Carter


Many of the native sons of the Wolverine State are now active enterprising business men and farmers, and in their various lines of business have met with success, as has our subject, Mason J. Carter, who was born in Stockbridge township, September 24, 1850. His father, Silas Carter, was born near Summersett, in New York, about July 11, 1820, and his mother, Mary Ann Fitz, was born November 28, 1826. The parents of our were married in New York and came to Michigan about the year 1846, and located in Stockbridge on eighty acres of wild land, which they cleared and later added one hundred and twenty. They cleared nearly all of the two hundred acres. Silas Carter was killed at Petersburg at forty years of age. He enlisted in 1864 in 2d Volunteer Michigan Infantry and was shot in July, 1864. The father was a Republican and a member of the M. E. church.

Mason J. Carter was the third of eleven children: Jerome (dead), Harrison (dead), our subject, Martha (dead), George Silas (dead), Adelbert, Frank (dead), William Herbert, and a child who died in infancy.

Our subject was educated in the district school and started for himself in 1867 and worked by the month until 1879 when he rented a farm and in 1881 bought eighty acres where he now lives. All this was wild land, with no buildings or fences, but our subject has brought it to a fine state of improvement, built a frame house and good barns. In 1894 he bought ten acres more of timber land, which he has since improved. He now owns ninety acres, and a half interest in seventy-three acres.

After the deathof Silas Carter, the mother was married to Nelson Lewis, and they had one child, Norman. Nelson Lewis deceased.

January, 1871, Mr. Carter was married to Emma J. Haughton, and they were the parents of four children, all living: Silas, September 7, 1872; Sara Jane, September 18, 1874; Maude, July 16, 1876, and Millie M., May 19, 1881. The mother of this family died August 20, 1897, and our subject again married, the woman of his choice being Ella Dewey, who was born December 16, 1860. Our subject's second wife was the widow of Samuel Dewey, who died July 19, 1897. To the Deweys were born six children, all living: Solomon T., January 2, 1885; James H., November 18, 1887; Maggie E., July 30, 1889; Ralph D., September 6, 1891; Ruth E., November 7, 1893; Gladys L., January 20, 1895. Our subject and wife were married December 25, 1898.

Harrison S., a brother of our subject, enlisted in the 20th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Co. H, September 7, 1864, at Ann Arbor, and was mustered out June, 1865. January, 1867, he reenlisted in the 8th Infantry Regulars, and died of typhoid fever at Sumner, S. C., in October 1867.

Mrs. Carter's parents were married at Ypsilanti, Michigan, November 29, 18 --, and the father died April 21, 1864, while the mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Hooker, born April 6, 1814, lives with Mrs. Carter and is in her ninety-first year. The father, Henry Clements, was born at Steuben county, N. Y., July, 1800. He was a mason and worked at his trade the most of the time. He died at Meadville. Mrs. Carter's mother bought seventy-three acres of land in Stockbridge township after the father's death, which she sold in 1901. One brother subject's wife, Clarence, born May 8, 1859, died August 17, 1902, while a brother Henry was killed in the civil war.

Mason J. Carter is a Republican, though he never devoted much to time to politics, as he prefers the quiet avocations of home and business life to the excitement and uncertainties of the political arena.






Taken from:
"Past and Present of the City of Lansing and Ingham County, Michigan", by Albert E. Cowles.
Published by The Michigan Historical Publishing Association Lansing, MICH., 1905.
Pages 241 - 242




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