Johnson-Allen County KS Archives Biographies.....Carpenter, A. G. 1831 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 5, 2009, 5:50 am

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  A. G. Carpenter, a Civil war veteran and Kansas pioneer, has been a dominant
factor in the development of Johnson county for fifty years. He was born at
Indiana, Pa., December 16, 1831, and is a son of Ephraim and Elizabeth
(Shryhock) Carpenter, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of
Pennsylvania. Ephraim Carpenter was a son of James Carpenter, who was a soldier
in the Revolutionary war. He served three enlistments and was with Washington at
Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered. On the maternal side Mr. Carpenter had a
great uncle who was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Ephraim Carpenter
was an attorney and practiced his profession at Indiana, Pa., until the time of
his death in 1860, at the age of seventy-two. The mother died at the age of
sixty-eight. They were the parents of eleven children, five girls and six boys,
three of whom are now living, as follows: A. G., the subject of this sketch;
Ephraim, Dodge City, Kan.; and John, Chanute. A. G. Carpenter was reared in his
native Pennsylvania town, educated in the public schools and the Indiana
Academy. He studied civil engineering and his first professional work was on the
construction of the Indiana branch of the Pennsylvania railroad, where he was
engaged two years. He then taught school two years in Indiana county and went to
Alt. Vernon, Ohio, where he remained about a year. He then went to Dubuque,
Iowa, where he was employed as contractor on the construction of the Dubuque and
Sioux City railroad and was also employed by the same company in construction
work at Freeport, Ill. After that he was engaged on the preliminary survey on a
railroad from Portage City to Madison, Wis., and in 1857 came to Kansas,
locating near Geneva, Allen county. He was engaged in surveying in that section
and while there served as county surveyor of Allen county two terms. He made the
plat of the original townsite of Iola and was a member of the townsite company.
When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in Company A, known as the "Iola
Battalion," and he later was assigned to Company D, Ninth regiment, Kansas
cavalry. He saw service among hostile Indians and in the fall of '62 his
regiment did considerable scout duty in Missouri. They operated for a time as an
escort for army trains in Arkansas and most of their service was along the
border between Kansas and Missouri. Mr. Carpenter's opinion is, that on account
of political or personal differences between the officers of his regiment and
General Lane, that the regiment was discriminated against on many occasions and
such conditions were not only true of the Ninth Kansas but there are many other
like instances that occurred during the Civil war which does not appear on the
records. During the Lawrence raid, Mr. Carpenter's company was stationed at
Oxford and he possessed much information about that affair and others, that was
not generally known. His regiment was stationed at Pleasant Hill, Mo., for a
time, also at Lawrence and later sent to Ft. Smith, Ark., and from there to
Little Rock where it served under General Steele. They were on the Red river
expedition and at Duval's Bluff. He was mustered out of service in 1864 and
returned to Allen county where he remained a short time, coming to Johnson
county that year and in 1866 bought a farm in Shawnee township. He later sold
that place and bought another west of Martin City, Mo., a part of the place
being located in Missouri and a part in Kansas. He followed farming there until
1880 when he located in Olathe, where he has since resided but still owns his
farm which consists of 370 acres of some of the best land in eastern Kansas. Mr.
Carpenter has served three terms as county surveyor of Johnson county and was
city engineer of Olathe for a number of years and served two terms as county
treasurer of Johnson county. Politically he is a Republican, but, generously,
gives the Democrats credit for his second election to the office of county
treasurer. Mr. Carpenter has been twice married, his first wife being Margaret
T. Duncan, of Jackson county, Missouri, to whom he was married March 1, 1865.
One son was born to this union, John C., who lives near Houston, Texas. The wife
and mother died January 17, 1870, and Mr. Carpenter's second wife bore the
maiden name of Mary A. Freeman, a native of London, Ohio, and a pioneer Johnson
county school teacher. They have one child, Margaret, who married C. C. Cammann,
and they reside at Olathe. Mr. Carpenter is perhaps the oldest Mason in Johnson
county, having been made a Mason at Greensburg, Pa., in 1853. He is a member of
the Grand Army of the Republic, Franklin Post, No. 68, and is one of the grand
old men of Johnson county.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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