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ITEM: Jacob Carter biography SOURCE: The History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880 (Fairwater Historical Society, gift from Richard and Joyce Damerau)
JACOB CARTER, farmer, Sec. 20; P. O. Fairwater; born June 2, 1813, in Lunenburgh, Worcester Co., Mass.; his earliest recollections are of the old farm and Massachusetts homestead, but years of his later youth were passed in New Hampshire; at the age of 18, he moved to Erie Co., Penn., where he resided fifteen years. He was married July 17, 1833, to Miss Elizabeth Wasson, of Wayne, Erie Co., Penn.; for a dozen seasons, they carried on farming in Pennsylvania; in 1844, they followed the "star of empire," and founded a new home in the Territory of Wisconsin; they stopped the first winter in Manchester, Green Lake Co., and on the 30th of June, 1845, they entered their roofless cabin, and slept sweetly for the first time on the farm and near their present hospitable home; Mr. Carter had "rolled up" the logs for this cabin in the month preceding, with aid brought from fifteen miles (Manchester); the first birth in the township was in that cabin that season--Franklin French--whose parents' thatched cabin was burned soon after its erection; the first family in the township preceded one week only the advent of Mr. Carter's family; sickness, accidents and delays were the lot of this family the season before comingWest, while on the journey and during the first season as pioneers; the first money earned by Mr. Carter in the West, was through helping to run his brother's old open-cylinder thrashing machine; in August, 1845, they began a tour of thrashing, which continued until February of the following year, and to find grain, they made a circuit of three counties--Green Lake, Dodge and Fond du Lac; some of the now well-known farmers for whom he thrashed, are John Bannister, Colwert Pier and his two brothers; Colwert Pier's grain was stacked and thrashed a few blocks north of the present site of the American House in Fond du Lac City; he also thrashed for Gov. Tallmadge, and Messrs. Conklin, Clark, Simmons and Wilcox of Waupun. In 1849, on his own farm, he thrashed wheat one morning, but the machine broke down before 9 o'clock; he took a grist to Fairwater to mill, when he went for blacksmithing repairs; the flour was returned, and the hot baked buscuits made therefrom by Mrs. Carter were eaten at the 11:30 A. M. dinner. In 1848, Mr. Carter build what was called for years the best dwelling in the township. By 1850, Fairwater was quite a little village, schoolhouses and churches were being erected, and the new country had many of the essentials of New England civilization; Mr. Carter now has five improved farms, aggregating 460 acres, of which fully 400 are now under the plow. Mr. and Mrs. Carter have added to the census eight sons and four daughters, of whom five sons and one daughter are living--Mary A. (deceased), Sarah E. (deceased); George W. (the present Warden of the Wisconsin State Prison at Waupun), James W., Harrison D. (deceased), Charles S., Alvin H. (deceased), Eliza B., Edward B., Henrietta L. (deceased), Louis E., and Herbert E. (deceased); three of the sons served through the rebellion, as soldiers in Wisconsin regiments, and a fourth one was four years in the army as clerk in the Commissary and Paymaster's departments; Mr. Carter's family were the second settlers in Metomen Township. Mrs. Carter is a motherly matron, whom many in that region regard as indispensable in sickness. Mr. Carter was the first Postmaster in Metomen Township; has been Assessor and Town Chairman, and held other local offices; he is a "true-blue" Republican, and is actively interested in local and general politics. Himself and wife are not connected with any church, but they are in sympathy with all institutions designed to benefit mankind, and their faith looks to the ultimate happiness of all humanity; they are a genial, hospitable and highly respected family.
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