Garfield County CO Archives Biographies.....Carter, Henry Clay April 6, 1844 - June 20, 1918
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 8, 2001, 2:03 am

Henry Clay Carter

     Born and reared far away in the Southland, and when the dread 
cloud of civil war overspread the country following his convictions 
through the terrible struggle, facing death on many a hard-fought field 
and enduring untold hardships and privations in camp and on the march, 
Henry C. Carter, of Garfield county, this state, one of the prosperous 
and progressive ranch and cattle men in the neighborhood of Newcastle, 
knows much of our great country's history from actual experience and 
observation under circumstances most likely to make lasting impressions 
and heighten the pleasures of peaceful enjoyment of its boundless 
opportunities and the products of its prolific soil.  He first saw the 
light of this world in Chesterfield county, South Carolina, on April 6, 
1844, and is the son of Simon and Margaret (Seals) Carter, the former 
born in South Carolina and the latter in North Carolina.  They passed 
their lives in the Carolinas, where they were engaged in farming, 
raising corn and cotton, and enjoying a modest prosperity until the war 
came.  The father was an ardent devotee of the section in which he 
lived and heartily supported the Democratic party in politics.  There 
were seven children born in the household, of whom three are living, 
Henry C., of this sketch, Robert, a resident of South Carolina, and 
Simon, living in the vicinity of Newcastle.  The deceased children are 
Alexander, who died in 1854, George, who was wounded in the battle of 
Shiloh and died in Duke's Hospital in Misissippi, and Gilbert and 
Debbie.  Henry was educated at the district schools of his home 
neighborhood, remaining with his parents until he reached the age of 
twenty-one except during the period of the Civil war.  When that broke 
out he enlisted in Company F, First Infantry of the Confederate army, 
and his service to the cause did not cease until the lst flag of the 
Confederacy went down in everlasting defeat.  He was taken prisoner at 
Smith's plantation in 1865 and paroled at Heart's Island in New York 
state in June of the same year.  He then returned to northern Alabama, 
and in the ensuing fall moved to Arkansas.  There he worked on farms 
for wages three years, in 1868 going to Lawrence county, Missouri, 
where he remained until 1870.  At that time he began to learn the 
carpenter trade, which he followed at various places for a number of 
years, working at it in Erath county, Texas, a year, then at Fort 
Griffin, where he was also a post trader and contractor.  In 1872 he 
was at Dallas for a time, and in November, 1873, came to Colorado.  In 
1875 he helped to build the Malta Smelter Company's plant at Leadville, 
and after wandering about two years, working at his trade, returned 
there in 1877, at which time there were but three white women in the 
camp.  Remaining there until 1881, he took up ranch work for Mr. 
Hayden, mined and prospected and worked at his trade, there, in South 
Park and elsewhere, until the winter of 1883-4, when he came to his 
present location in Garfield county.  On June 12, 1884, he took his 
present ranch, a pre-emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres, 
which was full of wild sage brush at the time.  He has improved the 
place and brought a considerable portion of it to advanced cultivation, 
fourteen acres being set out in choice fruit which is considered the 
best in the county, including apples, peaches, pears, plums, grapes and 
small fruits.  He also raises good crops of hay and grain.  The ranch 
is three miles west of Newcastle and is well supplied with water.
     On November 26, 1904, Mr. Carter was united in marriage with Miss 
Dora Priddy, a native of DeKalb county, Missouri, daughter of Strawder 
and Ellen (Patton) Priddy, the former a native of Ohio and the latter 
of Pennsylvania, who were married in Ohio and soon after went to 
Missouri.  In 1880 the family moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where Mrs. 
Priddy soon after died.  The father was a soldier in the Union army 
during the Civil war, serving in an Ohio regiment.

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/garfield/bios/carter19gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/