Biographical Sketch of John I. CARTER (1904); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . Copyright. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* Source: "Historical Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania", Vol. 2, edited by Gilbert Cope and Henry Graham Ashmead, published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1904, page 386. "JOHN I. CARTER, a successful farmer and highly respected citizen of London Grove township, Chester county, is the grandson of John Carter, a native of England, who on coming to this country landed in Philadelphia. Later he moved to Maryland, where he engaged in farming. He was the father of two sons, John, Jr., and Henry. The latter, who was born in 1804, at Stafford Mills, Maryland, received his education at the Westtown Boarding School, and then assisted his father in the care of the homestead. He afterward bought a farm in Lancaster county, where he made his home. He was a Republican in pol- itics, and served prominently in the constitutional convention. He married Mary A. Jackson, born in 1803, in London Grove township, daughter of Joel Jackson, a farmer of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Carter were the parents of the following named children: John I., mentioned at length hereinafter; Evan, who died unmarried; Alice, who married Alfred Brown and has one child; Anna, who became the wife of Cooper Stubbs, and has five children; Harlan, who re- mained single, and was killed while serving in the army during the Civil war; Edith, who married Davis Scott, and has one child; Joel, who married Susan Haines; and Catharine, who is unmarried. Mrs. Carter, the mother of the family, died in 1895, and her husband passed away in 1896, both having attained the age of ninety-two years. "John I. Carter, son of Henry and Mary A. (Jackson) Carter, was born December 24, 1826, on the old homestead, in Lancaster county, and moved at an early age to Chester county, where he was educated in Kennett Square. He engaged in farming in Upper Oxford township until 1856, when he moved to London Grove township, and there conducted for eight years the State Experimental Farm. He then came to his present home, in the same township, where he has since lived. His fine abilities as an agriculturist are displayed in the manage- ment of his extensive dairy farm whereon he maintains fifty cows of superior breed, and to which he has a creamery attached. In politics he is an Inde- pendent Republican, and has been called by his neighbors to fill the office of county auditor. He is a member of the Grange, and attends Friends' Meeting. "Mr. Carter married Rachel Patterson, of Lancaster county, and the following children were born to them: Mary, who married Howard Johnson, and has three children; Willis, and Charles who both died unmarried; and Elizabeth, who became the wife of Ernest Brown, and is the mother of two children. Mrs. Carter died in 1860, and in 1863 Mr. Carter married Caroline, daughter of Abraham Rakestraw, a farmer of Lancaster county. By his second marriage Mr. Carter is the father of the following children, all of whom are unmarried: Alice, Harry, Morris and Clarence."