Mary was a daughter of John and Kate Hughes, and a half-sister of Martin Hughes. She was born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1852, and emigrated to the United States with her family in the late 1860's. She married Patrick J. Carter in Council Bluffs on 19 April 1874. They had nine children, six of whom died young. The only one of their children who is known to have married is eldest son William F., who married Carrie Whitbeck. They lived in Marshalltown, Iowa and had five known children. Her husband Patrick worked as a railroad switchman and as a general laborer in Council Bluffs and in Chicago for a few years in the late 1870's.

Related Items:
Death notice for her father, John, and obituary for her mother, Kate.
Obituaries for her sisters Honora Murphy, Katherine Coyle and Anne Coyle.
Biography and obituary for her half-brother Martin D. Hughes.
Pictures of the Carter family plot and the tombstones of other individuals connected to the Hughes family in St. Joseph's Cemetery.

DEATH OF MARY CARTER
Council Bluffs Woman Expires at the Soldiers' Home
Special to The Daily Nonpareil.
MARSHALLTOWN, Ia., Nov. 30 - Mrs. Mary Carter, aged 53, wife of Patrick J. Carter, died at the Soldiers' Home this morning of pulminary tuberculosis. She was admitted with her husband June 5, 1905. William F., John, and Catherine, the children, all live in the Bluffs.