Carter, William H.

The following data is extracted from Merrimack and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire Biographies.

William H. Carter, a thrifty farmer of Canterbury and a son of John and Lydia (Gill) Carter, was born December 20, 1842. His grandfather, Nathan Carter, who was born in Boscawen, N.H., April 6, 1762, lived in this town all his life. Nathan carried on farming, and conducted a tavern, and died September 21, 1841. His wife, Sarah, died May 8, 1845. They had five children, namely: Judith, born December 5, 1787, who married John French, and died December 13, 1871; Moses, born August 6, 1790, who died May 30, 1851; John, born December 10, 1797, the father of the subject of this sketch; Jeremiah, born February 20, 1803, who died in 1871; and Nathan, born February 4, 1807, who died February 16, 1875.

John Carter in his younger days was employed in rafting lumber down the river, although his main business was farming. He resided at different times in Boscawen, East Concord, and Canterbury, and died August 12, 1871. His wife's death occurred February 4, 1890. They had six children: Bradbury G., born February 3, 1827, who married Asenath Spiller, and is now a widower living in Concord; Luther, born August 24, 1829, who married Mary Ann Coffin, and is engaged in the shoe business in Newburyport, Mass.; John, born March 25, 1832, who died in 1833; John (second), born March 15, 1834, who married Julia Bryant, and is a railroad man living in Norwalk, Ohio; Sarah R., born October 4, 1838, the widow of Robert G. Morrison, living in Boscawen; and William H., the subject of this sketch.

William H. Carter was a pupil of the Elmwood Academy in Boscawen. When twenty years old he went to Penacook, worked there at cabinet-making for a year and a half, and then returned home. Both he and his brother Luther joined the Union army. He enlisted September 1, 1864, in Company E, First New Hampshire Heavy Artillery, under Lieutenant Colonel Ira McL. Barton, Colonel Charles H. Long, and Captain Robert S. Davis. The regiment served in the defences of Washington for most of the time. Mr. Carter, who was a non-commissioned officer, received no wounds in the army, but was injured in health. He was discharged at Washington, D.C., June 15, 1865. He then went back to Penacook, proceeding later to Canterbury, where he remained with his parents until their death. He settled on his present farm, known as the old Blodgett farm, in 1865. The property contains about one hundred acres. Besides making many other improvements, he has remodelled the buildings.

Mr. Carter was married February 5, 1865, to Martha Ann Wheeler, daughter of Colonel John and Mary Jane (Blanchard) Wheeler. Colonel Wheeler, who came from Concord, Mass., and obtained his military title in the State militia, was a stone-cutter in early life, afterward a farmer, and died June 4, 1880. His wife is living with her son in Canterbury.

In politics Mr. Carter is a Republican. He has been a Selectman of the town, and he served on the School Board for three years, besides holding other less important offices. A comrade of the G. A. R., he belongs to W. I. Brown Post, No. 31, of Penacook.

Source: Merrimack and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire Biographies

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