Alonzo C. Carter - Submitted for the USGenWeb Archives by Jerry Carter 9/12/05

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Alonzo C. Carter - Madison Parish, Louisiana 
From Jerry Carter, September 12, 2005
 
Alonzo C. Carter was born in Columbia, La. on Sept. 30, 1867  This was the time in history 
known as Reconstruction in the South. He was two or three when his mother Helen Cotton 
Carter died. His step mother Frances Fife Carter died about 1876 when he was eight or nine 
years old. His father died when he was about eleven years old and as he stated in his 
Spanish American War Medical Records "I was raised as an orphan. I practically raised 
myself and also took care of my brother. We just worked about and stayed with different 
folks”. Alonzo and his brother John enlisted in the Spanish American War.
The Spanish American War was a short war. Alonzo served from June 22,1898-Oct. 03, 1898 
and was discharged at Jacksonville, Fla. about 3 weeks after fighting had stopped.
Pvt. Co. F. 1st Reg. La. Inf. Vol. his Commanding Officer was Capt. E. E. Kidd of 
Winnfield, La.  On August 07,1898 Alonzo was injured by a lightening strike at Miami, 
Florida which required confined to quarters. During the return trip from Miami to 
Jacksonville Alonzo was injured in an accident while driving a team of horses pulling a  
wagon carrying his unit's supplies. He married Nora Irene Hinton daughter of James Houston 
Hinton Sr. and Elizabeth Laverne Antley in 1900 in Union Parish, together they raised 12 
children, Charlie, James Alfred, Ardella Carter Crider, Guy Edward, Peter Hurtle, Carlos, 
Corine Carter Presley, Elvin, Woodrow, Laverne Carter Nazet, Lavon Carter Kessler and Susie 
Carter Brownell. Most lived and had families in Madison Parish.
After the war he is reported to have worked on the Ouachita River to New Orleans, farming, 
and in the timber industry.  Alonzo was given a pension from the Veterans Administration 
some where in the nineteen twenties, 25% disabled.  
June 5, 1929 a delegation of citizens from ward eight came before the Police Jury to ask 
that Madison Parish agree to pay the sum of $15.00 or half the cost of paying a ferryman 
for the Hana Crosby Ferry. The motion carried with the stipulation that Franklin Parish 
agrees to pay an equal amount. The actual pay was $15.00 from Madison Parish and $ 12.50 
from Franklin Parish with the total amount being 27.50 a month.
Alonzo was hired and worked for both Franklin and Madison Parish Police Juries from 1929 to 
1941 as a Ferry operator on the Bayou Mason. This ferry was important for western Madison 
Parish residents traveling to Franklin and Richland Parish. Later after 1941 a bridge  was 
built to replace the ferry.  
Alonzo had many passengers looking for and asking advice on finding the elusive Ivory 
Billed Woodpecker in the “Singer” hardwood forest. The Encyclopedia of founding families 
of Ouachita Valley of Louisiana by E. Russ Williams jr. list Alonzo’s Great Grand Father 
George W. Carter, and Grand Father Joseph C. Carter as founding families. Joseph C. Carter 
served as a Private. CO. E 17th Infantry CSA. 
Alonzo Died in 1954 and is buried in Acre-Carter cemetery at Point, La. Union Parish.