William Hodding Carter, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Mike Miller, Aug. 2001

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William Hodding Carter, local manager of the Louisiana Farm Bureau, has been identified with 
farming associations at Hammond since 1906, and is one of the best known and most 
thoroughly informed men in his line in the state.  He has several other important business 
connections, and takes an active part in the life of his adopted community.  Mr. Carter was 
born near Kentwood, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, April 17, 1881, and is a son of Thomas Lane 
and Anna Hennen (Jennings) Carter.

Thomas Lane Carter was born at Charlestown, West Virginia, in 1819, and was reared in his 
home community and at the University of Virginia, from which he was graduated.  Following 
this he moved to New York City, where he was interested in the development and perfection of 
the Morse telegraphic instrument, his next location being New Rochelle, New York, where his 
marriage occurred.  He next spent several years traveling in Europe, and then returned to New 
York City, where he operated as a capitalist in financing various enterprises.  In 1879 Mr. 
Carter came to Louisiana and became assistant cashier of the Illinois Central Railroad 
Company at New Orleans, and three years later moved to Amite, where he held a like position.  
In 1890, he went to Sheffield, Alabama, as cashier of the Northern Alabama Railroad Company, 
a position which he retained for eight years.  In 1898, while on a visit to his birthplace, 
Charlestown, West Virginia, his sudden death occurred.  Mr. Carter was politically a democrat 
and fraternally a Mason, and was a strong supporter of the Presbyterian Church, of which he 
was a life member.  During the struggle between the South and the North he offered his 
services to the Confederacy, was accepted and fought gallantly throughout that war.  Mr. 
Carter was united in marriage with Miss Anna Hennen Jennings, who was born on the old 
Hennen Plantation, fifteen miles east of Hammond, and who survives her husband and lives In 
ripe old age at Camden, Maine.  They were the parents of the following children: Needler, who 
died at Chicago, aged twenty-one years; Alice Marguerite, who is unmarried and makes her 
home at London, England; Benjamin Palmer, former general manager of the Crown Deep gold 
mine, who died at Johannesburg, South Africa, aged forty-four years; Lady Lillian, the wife of
 Sir Otto Beit, a capitalist of London, England; Cora, who married the late W. E. Hall, a farmer, 
and after his death married Ernest Robbins, a newspaper' publisher of Camden, Maine; Thomas 
Lane, Jr., a mining engineer who died in Montana, aged thirty-nine years; William Hodding, of 
this review; Hon. Charles Congreve, mayor of Hammond; Ellen, the wife of Elmore Rundle, who 
is engaged in the export log business at New Orleans ; and two children who died in infancy.

William Hodding Carter received good educational advantages in his youth, graduating from 
the Sheffield (Alabama) Highs School with the class of 1897, then attending a preparatory 
school at Lebanon, Tennessee, for one year, and Rugby Academy, a preparatory school for 
Tulane University, for a like period, and finally spending two years at the university.  Leaving 
school he engaged in the sugar brokerage business at New Orleans for one year, and then 
became cashier of the American Cotton Oil Company, with headquarters at Vidalia, Louisiana, 
for two years.  He remained with the same firm for another year as cashier at Torras, 
Louisiana, and next went to Greenwood, Mississippi, as cashier of the Buckeye Cotton Oil 
Company.  In 1905 he took up his residence at Hammond, and after recovering from a year's 
indisposition, became connected with farming associations, this having constituted his line 
of endeavor ever since.  On January 1, 1924, he became local manager for the Louisiana Farm 
Bureau and maintains offices in the Citizen's National Bank Building.  He has rendered 
excellent services in this organization, which has profited materially under his energetic 
management. Mr. Carter is the owner of a strawberry farm located three miles southwest of 
Hammond, and a comfortable residence on Spruce Street.  He is a director of the Hammond 
State Bank and of the Hammond Building and Loan Association, and was formerly a member of
the Hammond Chamber of Commerce.  A democrat, he takes only a good citizen's part in 
political affairs.  His religious connection is with the First Presbyterian Church of Hammond, 
in which he is a deacon.

On May 10, 1906, at Natchez, Mississippi.  Mr. Carter married Miss Irma Dutart, daughter of 
John D. and Corinne (Henderson) Dutart, the latter of whom resides at Vidalia, Louisiana, 
while the father, who was an extensive cotton planter, passed away at Ferriday, Louisiana, in 
1913.  Mrs. Carter is a woman of numerous accomplishments, having completed her education 
at Stanton College, Natchez.  Three children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Carter: William Hodding, 
Jr., born February 2, 1907, who is now a student at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; John 
B., born August 26, 1908; and Corinne, born February 3, 1910.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 387-388, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by The 
American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.