Carroll County IN Archives Biographies.....Carter, Henry 1849 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 27, 2006, 10:39 pm Author: John C. Odell (1916) HENRY CARTER. M. D. The medical practitioner of this day and generation must needs be more than the practitioner of half a century ago. He must be broader and more intelligent, his sympathies must be more diverse and his ideals must be higher. The doctor of years past, if he practiced his profession for any length of time, reached the limit of excellence, not of his own accord but by reason of the restriction of the science. As Dr. Paul Ehrlich, a noted German scientist, said: "More has been done and more has been discovered in the science of medicine during the past twenty years than in the past century." Specialization has become necessary. The theory of toxins and antitoxins, serums, the study of bacteriology and methods of combating these destructive forces, and many other things have made the range of science almost beyond one man's power of learning. True it is that the doctor of the past has endured more hardships, received smaller remuneration and in many other ways deserves the credit for his pioneer work, but the present physician is a specialist, an expert diagnostician, an idealist striving for the prevention of disease rather than the curing, a moral doctor as well as physical. Among the well-known physicians of Monroe township, this county, is Dr. Henry Carter, of Bringhurst, who has labored long and patiently for the relief of human suffering. Henry Carter was born in Monroe township, Carroll county, Indiana, on July 5, 1849, and is the son of Martin and Penninah (Hollowell) Carter, the former of whom was born in Tennessee, and the latter in North Carolina. Martin Carter came alone to Indiana when sixteen years old, having walked from Tennessee to Indiana barefooted in 1834. Penninah Hollowell came with her parents to Indiana overland in a two-wheeled cart Martin Carter worked in various parts of southern Indiana and finally settled near Burlington, where he was employed at making brick and farming. He had been married first in southern Indiana and, after coming to Carroll county, was married to Penninah Hollowell. He died when his son, Henry, was five years old, when he was thirty-nine years of age, in 1854. Martin Carter and his wife were the parents of five children, including one pair of twins. Penninah Hollowell, when nine years old, was taken ill with tuberculosis of the knee bone. After she had been filled with whiskey, she was held by force and the limb was amputated above the knee and seared with hot irons. This was primitive surgery and it was almost the only kind of surgery known to pioneer times in which Penninah Hollowell lived. After the death of his father, Henry Carter lived with Henry Hollowell, an uncle, and Stephen Harmon, another uncle, for some time, while his mother lived with friends. Later the family moved into an old school house with a puncheon roof and floor in Monroe township, and here they lived for three years and then moved to the Jonathan Cunningham farm. Subsequently, Henry and his brother, Caswell, who died in 1891, began to work out among the neighboring farmers, being employed by Jonathan Cunningham for three years. The family then moved to a farm east of Flora, owned by John F. Kingery, operating this farm until the house was burned in which they lived, all their household furnishings being destroyed by the fire. They spent the following winter in a cabin on Peter Gommer's farm, northeast of Flora, Henry in the meantime attending school in Hoff's school house northeast of Flora, taught at that time by Wallace Gwinn. The next spring they removed to a farm owned by George Shirrar, and here they made a little money, Henry at this time being about eighteen years of age. The brothers then separated, Caswell going to work for Charles Burns, where he remained for two years, and Henry being employed by Moses Harmon at eighteen dollars a month. The next year he worked for Green Woodrum at twenty-one dollars a month. The third year he returned and worked for Moses Harmon. During all of this time he had attended school at least a part of the winter months. His teacher advised him to attend summer school and become a teacher. At the age of twenty-one years Henry Carter started to school at Burlington, Indiana, his teachers being George Bass and T. H. B. Britton. He walked from Darwin to Burlington, a distance of two and one-half miles, to school, which he attended one year. He was then elected to teach the Liberty schools. After teaching one year he attended Howard College, at Kokomo, Indiana, after which he taught his second term at Liberty. In 1873 he was a student of the Ohio National Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, after which he taught the Pleasant Valley school for a year and finally became enabled to attend the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, Indiana, after which he served for four years as principal of the Bringhurst school. In the meantime his first wife had died. In 1878 he was defeated as the Republican candidate for representative in the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly. He next taught school for two years at the Walnut Stump school, and was principal of the school in Flora for two years, later teaching at Wheeling for one year. He then bought a small farm of forty acres in Howard county, Indiana, again taught two years at Pleasant Valley school, two years at Liberty, and three years at Brush College, which was his last experience in teaching. In 1890 Henry Carter took a course of lectures on medicine at Indianapolis, and in 1892 was graduated from the Cincinnati Eclectic School of Medicine, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In the same year he came to Bringhurst, and has since been engaged in the active practice of his profession. On September 16, 1876, Henry Carter was married to Virginia G. Gwinn, a daughter of Harrison and Sarah Gwinn, and two years later, in February, 1878, Mrs. Virginia Carter died. On September 3, 1881, Doctor Carter was married to Cinderella G. Pruitt, the daughter of W. A. Pruitt, and to this union three children were born, all of whom are living, Emerson, Lloyd and Paul. Dr. Emerson Carter, the eldest son, is a graduate of the Physio-Medical College of Indianapolis, having finished the course in 1909. In 1912 he was graduated from the Chicago Polyclinic. Dr. Lloyd Carter is a graduate from the Indiana Dental College, having finished the course in 1912. Paul is a musician and is a student at the Indiana Law School. Mrs. Cinderella G., (Pritt) Carter died on August 12, 1898, and on January 1, 1899, Doctor Carter was married to Mariah Miranda Allen, and to this union one son was born, who is now deceased. Mrs. Mariah. Carter died in 1901, and on February 26, 1902, Doctor Carter was married to Mariah B. Kelsey, the daughter of John B. Wingard. Doctor and Mrs. Carter are prominent in the work of the Methodist church, and for many years Doctor Carter served as superintendent of the Sunday schools at Darwin and at Asbury. In politics, he is a Republican, while fraternally, he is a member of Lodge No. 558, Free and Accepted Masons. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY INDIANA ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS BY JOHN C ODELL With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families ILLUSTRATED 1916 B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/carroll/bios/carter127bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/infiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb