Chapman Creighton

Family 1: Elizabeth Walker Jameson 

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INDEX

To download a complete GEDCOM file click here GEDCOM

For more information send mail to:wcarter1@wwcom.net

Created by Sparrowhawk 1.0 (4/17/1996) on Wed Dec 1 10:30:40 1999 I1166: William Henry Carter (29 APR 1881 - 29 NOV 1933)

William Henry Carter

Father: James Watkins Carter
Mother: Mary Elizabeth Jameson

Family 1: Annette Elizabeth Alves
  1. William Henry Carter
  2. James Watkins Carter
  3. Annette Elizabeth Carter
  4. Leland Stanford Carter 
                                                                                          _John Carter ____________
                                                            _John Carter ________________|_Mary Smith _____________
                           _Charles Carter ________________|
                          |                                |                              _William (Billy) Bond ___
                          |                                |_Mourning Bond ______________|_Elizabeth Saunders _____
 _James Watkins Carter ___|
|                         |                                                               _Ezekiel Veazey _________
|                         |                                 _William James Veazey _______|_Elizabeth Veazey _______
|                         |_Feriba Thurin Veazey __________|
|                                                          |                              _________________________
|                                                          |_Hannah Simmons _____________|_________________________
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|--William Henry Carter 
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|                                                                                         _James Jameson __________
|                                                           _John Jameson _______________|_Christianna Linnington _
|                          _William John Ratcliff Jameson _|
|                         |                                |                              _Dr. John Ratcliff ______
|                         |                                |_Winniford C. Ratcliff ______|_Mary ? _________________
|_Mary Elizabeth Jameson _|
                          |                                                               _Silas (Seldon) Watkins _
                          |                                 _John W. Watkins ____________|_Phoebe (Patty) Watkins _
                          |_Musadora Antonette Watkins ____|
                                                           |                              _Thomas Atkinson ________
                                                           |_Elizabeth (Betsy) Atkinson _|_Rebecca Warren _________
INDEX

Notes

There is a Report card from the Webb School in Belt Buckle, TN dated 20May1897 (when he was 16) saying that he had done well in deportment(exceptional), English(very good), Latin(excellent), and mathematics(good) and could return to the school. Was he sent off to boarding school for being uncontrollable? My father said that if I wasn't good he would do this to me. Was this where he got the idea, from his father? He went to Belton High School in Dallas TX during the 1898-99 academic year and excelled at geometry and Latin. According to my Mother he ran away from Houston on a ship to South Africa in 1902 when he was 18 years old. He was just after the Boer War. Peace was declared while he was on this boat, a mule boat, the Indiau out of Liverpool. It took four weeks from New Orleans to Durban, arriving in June 8, 1902. I found his discharge from the boat in Elizabeth's old papers, so he probably sailed as a crew member. Because of a quarantine, the passengers and crew were not allowed to disembark, so he swam ashore loosing all of his clothes and money getting over a reef. For several days he was almost without food and shelter until he got a job as a photographer's assistant at the Premier Studio, on West Street in Durban. He wrote several letters to the Houston Post and to the Belton Journal describing his adventures and the behavior of the black native "Kaffirs." In January, 1903 he reported an eight week hospital stay with a fever that he considered very dangerous. He was planning to leave for Rhodesia or India in a few months when he wrote the last letter. He is said to have worked laying brick later. He finally came down with "Exteric" fever. The Masons found him and got him back to his family in Houston. Afterward he studied book keeping for a month at Belton Business College in Belton, TX finishing on 31Dec1903.

Elizabeth said that he went to California looking for gold, but actually he enlisted in the 29th Company of the Coast Artillery on 21Jan1904 while still in Houston, TX (listing his occupation as a Photographer), was ordered to the Presidio of San Francisco on 9Feb1904, served for three years at the Presidio, was promoted to Corporal on 23Jan1905, served as Company Clerk from 1Feb1905 until 28Jun1905, travel orders dated 12Feb1905 order him to Stockton, CA to pick up a Deserter (Frank J. Barrett) to return him to the Presidio, and was discharged (excellent character) on 5Sep1905, because of varicose veins in his left leg from phlebitis resulting from typhoid fever (from Africa?). Elizabeth said that he joined the Army trying to get to Hawaii. As a Corporal in the 29th Company, Coast Artillery in Apr1905 he applied for a commission. A business card from San Francisco said that he represented J. Brett & Co. at 738 Mission St. while he was still there. This is either where he met Annie or one of them got the other a job there.

He met his wife in San Francisco and they were married on 24Feb1906 in San Rafael, Marin County, CA by the Rev. Arnold T. Needham (Res. 914 4th St.) with a license issued 24 Feb1906 at the San Rafael Courthouse (recorded in book L of Marriage Certificates, page 259 in the records of Marin County). The story goes that he returned to Houston to tell his family about his marriage, and was away from his bride during the famous earthquake and subsequent fire that started at 5:13AM on 18Apr1906. In a letter to her husband a few days after the fire she said that she was awakened by the earthquake, was dressed and out in the street within 12 minutes, tried to walk downtown in the middle of the street between fires on either side of the street and falling bricks, came to a solid wall of fire, got frightened, and then retreated away from the burning downtown area. She sent her husband a letter saying that she was all right on 20Apr1906 but he had already left to get her and didn't find out that she was all right until he found her. Upon hearing about the earthquake and fire he immediately started back to San Francisco. He had trouble finding her when he returned. She was sitting on a pile of rubble near her home (2516 Pine St.). The fire had stopped just two blocks from her house. All of the houses around but hers had been destroyed in the big fire (it destroyed 4 square miles of downtown San Francisco, according to the encyclopedia). According to the encyclopedia 700 people had been killed in the destruction. They came back to Houston, and had four children.

He evidently traveled a great deal. As soon as he got to Houston with his wife he left again and spent most of the rest of the year on the road selling pianos. An employment reference said that he worked for the Rio Bravo Oil Company in Houston as a auditor/bookkeeper in 1907 when William Henry Carter Jr. was born. He received his 32nd Scottish Rite degree on 19Apr1911 in Stuttgart, AR and was initiated into the Shrine on 19Oct1911 at the Al Almin Temple in Little Rock, AR and thus must have been living in Arkansas at the time. Later, he worked for Weber Implement & Automobile Co. as a automobile salesman (as he stated on Elizabeth's birth certificate) while living at 4239 Castleman Ave. in Saint Louis, MO. Elizabeth was born there in 1913. He registered for the draft on 12Sep1918 while living at 311 West 19th St. in Houston, TX. He applied for a commission in the U. S. Army Quartermaster Corps on 7Sep1918, according to a letter of reply with instructions as to the correct procedure. At that time he was living at 311 West St. in Houston. Later he worked for Lane & Bolder Oil Company as a Bookkeeper, for the G. A. Stowers Furniture Co. at 701 & 703 Travis St., in Houston, and for the Carter Music Company with his brother James. There is a letter from a politician in Beaumont, TX discouraging him from aspiring to the Beaumont City Manager's job, dated 24Jan1930, three years before he died. There is a letter dated 27Jan1930 from a H. G. Porter (Chief, Accounts and Maintenance Division of the Civil Service Commission) giving him advice about applying for a government pension for a service related disability. He must have been claiming that his TB was contracted in he Army. His last years he lived down at the big house owned by his brother James located near Highlands, TX on the San Jacinto river. He died of TB on 29Nov1933 just after my Mother and Dad Married.

He was a difficult person who "never grew up." He spent much of his life traveling about as a salesman and neglected his family. Elizabeth Carter said that her father could be extremely charming when he wanted, but that he could also be very impatient, especially with his family. He was very harsh with William and James, his oldest sons, less so with Elizabeth and Leland. He didn't stay home much. He was a chain smoker, six feet four and a half inches tall, ruddy complexion, big prominent ears, blue eyes, auburn hair, and considered handsome. He liked to fish and hunt. His brother, James, helped the family financially so that they always lived comfortably in a nice house.

Cemetery records show that he died of TB.

To download a complete GEDCOM file click here GEDCOM

For more information send mail to:wcarter1@wwcom.net

Created by Sparrowhawk 1.0 (4/17/1996) on Wed Dec 1 10:30:40 1999