Honolulu County HI Archives Obituaries.....Carter, Alfred Wellington April 27, 1949 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com February 16, 2012, 2:37 pm Unknown newspaper, April, 1949 Alfred Carter, Parker Ranch Official, Dies. Alfred Wellington Carter, 82, manager and former trustee of the world-famous Parker Ranch on the Island of Hawaii for nearly 50 years, died in The Queen’s Hospital at 5:20 Wednesday* afternoon after having been in failing health for many months. Private services will be held at the graveside in Nuuanu cemetery at 4:30 o’clock this afternoon, with Williams mortuary in charge of arrangements. It is requested that no flowers be sent. Memorial services will be held at the Parker ranch at 4:30 Friday afternoon. Mr. Carter is survived by the widow, Mrs. Edith M. Hartwell Carter; a son, Alfred Hartwell Carter, assistant manager of the Parker Ranch; two daughters, Mrs. H. Ernest Podmore and Miss Barbara J. Carter; two sisters, Mrs. Cara Carter Young and Miss Florence N. Carter, and by many nieces and nephews. The Carter home is at Judd and Liliha Sts. Richard Smart, owner of the Parker Ranch, and life-long friend of Mr. Carter, arrived from the Mainland by plane Wednesday for a week’s visit at the ranch. Mr. Carter was born in Honolulu on April 22, 1867, the son of Samuel Morrill Carter and Harriet Layman Carter. His grandfather, Capt. Joseph O. Carter, came to the Islands from New England in the 1820’s. He married Edith Millicent Hartwell, daughter of Judge and Mrs. Alfred S. Hartwell, on Oct. 12, 1895. Mr. Carter was educated in Honolulu schools, including Punahou, until 14 or 15, when he went to work for the late Charles R. Bishop in the Bishop Bank. He was later employed in various departments of the government until 1891, when he entered the Yale Law School. He completed his law course in two years and was graduated in 1893 in the same class with his boyhood friend, the late Judge A. G. M. Robertson. Returning to Honolulu, he practiced law with his cousin, Charles L. Carter, who was killed in the revolution of 1895. He later served as deputy attorney general. From January, 1896, until November, 1897, he served as judge of the court of the first judicial circuit, resigning to re- enter law practice. In addition to his law practice, he became interested in various business enterprises, serving as a director of several corporations. He was among the organizers of several, including the Molokai Ranch, Hilo Railroad Co., Olaa Sugar Co. and the Hawaii Meat Co. He had served as president of the Hawaii Meat Co. continuously since its incorporation in 1909, except for a year in 1917. He was a member of the old Myrtle Boat Club. On Sept. 25, 1899, he must appointed guardian of the estate of Thelma K. Parker and began his association with Parker Ranch, which was to become his life work. The responsibility for management of the ranch was tremendous and he soon found it necessary to curtail all his other activities until his entire time became occupied in safeguarding the interests of his ward and in developing the resources of the Parker Ranch. He resigned as a trustee of the Bishop Estate and gave up a large practice in corporation law. With baking experience and legal training, he had no experience in ranching. When he took over its management, the Parker Ranch was a great, unfenced, unwatered range, with some 5,000 half-wild long-horns roaming at will. They lived on the native grasses and had to make their way great distances for what water they could find. One of Mr. Carter’s first moves was to build fences, repair stone walls, and cut the range into paddocks. The cattle were branded and the misfits sent to market while white-faced Hereford bulls were imported. The first new cattle were not fitted by temperament to fatten properly so he continued research and study of the problem until the right family of Herefords were obtained which would be most profitable for market. Water was piped from the Kohala Mountains by gravity flow to strategically located tanks in various dry sections of the ranch with some of it siphoned to the slopes of Mauna Kea. Study was given to types of grasses and tons of grass seed imported. With the extensive acreage of the ranch needed where rainfall was light, some where it was heavy, and some for the warmer and for the colder sections. Native grasses and undergrowth which were not good feed or were harmful were eradicated. Today the Parker Ranch is said to have few equals in the world and has become one of the greatest meat producers in the United States. The Ranch also grazes Merino sheep on the mountain uplands and in times past has raised race-horses, polo ponies, plantation work mules, turkeys and dairy products in addition to beef cattle. Mr. Carter always insisted that the accomplishments were possible only through the teamwork of his Hawaiian foremen and cowboys, but it would not have been done without his leadership and research. When Thelma Parker, later Mrs. H. Gaillard Smart, reached her majority, she placed all of her properties in his charge and his trusteeship continued until 1943. Since that time Mr. Carter has continued the management of the ranch as the agent of the present owner, Richard Smart. Additional Comments: *Notation indicates Wednesday was 4/27/1949. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/honolulu/obits/carter191gob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/hifiles/ File size: 5.7 Kb