ALFRED LAFAYETTE "FAYETTE" CARTER

THE HAMILTON HERALD-RECORD
Hamilton, TX - March 26, 1937

A. Lafayette Carter, Pioneer, Travels to New Frontier

Alfred Lafayette Carter was born March 2, 1867 in Live Oak Community on the Cow House in Hamilton County, Texas. He was the son of Joseph [sic] Henry and Mary Caroline Carter. He was married to Miss Maude Blansit on
July 4, 1889. There were twelve children born of this union, seven boys and five girls. Mamie, Stella, Marion, Blansit, Munroe, Hamilton, Jewell, Mildred, A. L., Jr., Mack, and twin sons Ed and Fred. Mamie died at the age of 12 , Hamilton died at 18, and Ed died an infant, age 4 months. All of the children live in or near Perryton, Texas, except Munroe, who lives at Long Beach, California, and Fred, who lives at Alice, Texas. There are 15 grandchildren.

He was converted and joined the Methodist Church at the age of thirty under the preaching of Abe Mulkey. He has been a faithful Christian ever since. He has been a member of Rock House Masonic Lodge for more than 45 years.

During the early childhood of "Fayette" Carter his father began pre-empting and purchasing from the state, more than a league of land in the Blue Ridge country, but as there was no school or settlement and the Indians were still making raids in this country they moved on to
Hamilton and only the father and older boys lived in the log hut at Blue Ridge and with their oxen sodded in the largest farm in Hamilton County. They built a double log house (one room of which is still standing) and as soon as conditions were deemed safe all of the family moved out on the farm, organized and built the Blue Ridge School near the site where the beautiful Blue Ridge High School now stands. "Fayette" Carter grew to manhood helping his father improve the home site. Shortly after his marriage, being an instinctive pioneer, he took his young wife and
infant into the undeveloped new country now called Foard county, took up a section of land, dug a one-room dugout, covering it with Mesquite brush and earth, and began the hard task of putting in a farm. He lived in his dug-out home for three years and then at the request of his
father returned to the old home in Hamilton county where he lived until 1912 when he again answered the call of the pioneering spirit, moving to Ochiltree county where he began, on an extensive scale, the breeding and raising of white-faced cattle. With the development of power machinery he again pioneered in the vast production of wheat.

"Fayette" Carter had little opportunity of gaining an education in the schools, but he went a long way in remedying this handicap by giving himself an extensive self-education. He had a high appreciation of friendship, to him, friendship was a beautiful flower that bloomed
brightest during dark days and days of adversity. He was a devoted husband and a beloved father, always willing to carry a burden but never willingly burdening others. Much pain he bore in stoic solitude rather than to cause fear or uneasiness to his friends and loved ones. He always lived in the open and he appreciated it. He loved the beautiful
things of nature and on March 19, while walking in God's own garden he lay down in sleep to awaken in that new frontier where there are no pioneering hardships.

Mr. and Mrs. Fayette Carter were visiting their nephew, David H. Carter and family on their baronial estate in the Evant section, just across the line in Lampasas county, when death came to him suddenly from a heart attack. Mr. and Mrs. David H. Carter and son, Prof. James D. Carter, principal of the Evant school, accompanied Mrs. Maude Carter and children to Perryton, Texas, where the body of A. L. Carter has been laid to rest.

When news spread in Hamilton and the county that Fayette Carter had passed away at the home of David H. Carter, many friends made haste to go there to pay tributes to his memory in beautiful floral offerings and
in expressions of sympathy for the sorrowing loved ones.

Shared by Kathy Beaudry

DESCENDANTS OF HENRY JONES CARTER

THE CARTER FAMILY IN HAMILTON COUNTY, TEXAS