Rio Grande County CO Archives Biographies.....Carpenter, John Y. June 8, 1838 - ? ************************************************ 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 December 9, 2005, 12:24 pm Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado This most wide-awake and progressive citizen of Monte Vista, Colorado, whose restless energy and unconquerable spirit have led him into many sections of the country and a great variety of pursuits, and who has shown that he could be as courageous and gallant in war as he was industrious and many-handed in peace, was born at Lafayette, Tippecanoe county, Indiana, on June 8, 1838, and is the son of John and Ellen (Youel) Carpenter, natives of Ohio, who some years after their marriage moved to Indiana and there passed the remainder of their lives, the mother dying there in 1843 and the father in 1873. Five of their children are living, Mrs. Lafayette Booth, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mrs. David Ward, of Crowley, Louisiana, Mrs. John Kerr, John Y., and Benjamin C., who lives at Perryville, Indiana. John Y. received a limited common-school education, and in 1860, when he was twenty-two, his father started him in the drug business at Rainsville, Warren county, his native state. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in the Eleventh Indiana Infantry under Colonel (afterward General) Lew Wallace, and though he served until November 15, 1863, and was in several fiercely-fought battles, among them the capture of Fort Donelson and the engagement at Shiloh, he received only a few slight flesh wounds. After sixteen months’ service in the infantry he was promoted to the Second Arkansas Cavalry, Troop C, and was mustered out as captain of that command. He returned to Indiana on leaving the army, and farmed until September, 1865, when he moved to Benton county, Missouri, where he resumed farming and raising stock, and followed that occupation eight years. He then kept the National Hotel in Sedalia, Missouri, three years and a half, where he engaged in mining lead until July, 1879, when he crossed the plains with a party of seventy persons conveyed by thirteen wagons drawn by horses, to San Juan in southeastern Utah. The party separated at various places until Mr. Carpenter was left alone. He crossed the mountains in this state, going over Walsenburg La Veta pass, by Fort Garland and Conejos, and across Cumbers [sic], the principal pass of the Rockies. The silver excitement took him into the Indian country where the savages were still hostile, and he had many thrilling adventures with them. He prospected in Utah seven months without success. He then came into Colorado, and during the next two years kept a hotel and prospected at Parrot City in La Plata county. In 1883 he changed his residence to what is now Montezuma, where he located land and began farming and raising stock, which he continued until 1889, when he sold all his interests, and locating at Durango, again turned his attention to mining, being interested in the Tempest Mining & Milling Company at the head of the Florette river. In 1891 he moved to Summitville and continued his mining operations with the aid of his sons. The Pass-Me-By Tunnel, Mining & Milling Company was formed by them and its properties developed, and from its organization Mr. Carpenter has served as its secretary. From 1902 to 1904 he conducted the Blanco Hotel at Monte Vista. The Pass-Me-By has one thousand two hundred feet of tunnel on surface work and four thousand feet on the water level, cross-cutting eleven claims, and is equipped with as fine machinery as can be had. Its ores are mainly gold, with very little silver or copper. Mr. Carpenter and his sons are engaged in the business of breeding the Angora goat in Colorado, and have bred the stock with great success and profit. They have eight hundred acres of land, well improved and sufficiently irrigated for the cultivation of seven hundred acres. On this they conduct a general ranching industry and raise cattle and horses extensively. Mr. Carpenter was married on March 2, 1864, in Warren county, Indiana, to Miss Marian Mitchell, a native of that county. Four of their seven children are living, Ulysses G., promoter and president and general manager of the mining company already mentioned and the Asiatic Mining & Milling Company, west of it; Orion P., a ranchman; Clarence J., a practical miner; and Tula. Both father and sons are earnest Republicans in politics and belong to the order of Elks; and the sons also belong to the Macabees. Their ranch is three miles and a half east of Monte Vista, and has the second best water right on the Rio Grande. It is improved with good buildings and in a forward state of cultivation. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/riogrande/bios/carpente54gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb