James PT Carter

James PT Carter

James Patton Taylor Carter (born July 30, 1822 in Elizabethton , Carter County , Tennessee , † September 29, 1869 in Mexico ) was an American politician and acting governor of the Arizona Territory from December 13, 1868 to April 1869 . He was a member of the Republican Party .

Career

James Patton Taylor Carter, son of Alfred and Evalina Carter, and Colonel of the 2nd Tennessee Infantry , was born on July 30, 1822 near Elizabethton, Carter County, Tennessee. He was involved in the iron business with his father and took over management after his father's death in 1850. He was married twice. His first wife was a Margaretta Dunn from Rogersville , Tennessee, whom he married on August 5, 1851 in Carter County. The couple had a son named William A. Carter in 1853. His second marriage was to a Margaret Letcher from Lexington , Kentucky . The couple had no children together.

James Carter was a member of the Whigs early in his political career and was little involved in politics. However, when the people of east Tennessee met near Knoxville on May 30th and 31st, 1861, to discuss secession , Carter was one of five delegates elected to represent Carter County. Carter was firmly against secession, as was the majority of those present, which made him a supporter of the Union. The meeting in Knoxville was in vain, as Tennessee spoke out on June 8, 1861 in favor of joining the Confederate States . Carter then sided with Tennessee's US Senator and later US President Andrew Johnson .

After the war, Carter was impoverished and in poor health. He sought and gained another political office. Carter accepted the appointment as Secretary of the Arizona Territory. After a long and arduous journey, he and his family finally arrived in Prescott , Arizona on September 3, 1866 . For the next several years he lived first in Prescott and then in Tucson . Carter's tenure has been controversial, mainly because he commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment for convicted murderess Dolores Moore . The prosecutor and the sheriff supported this decision. At that time, Carter was also serving as acting governor of Arizona. However, this unpopular decision and other reasons prevented Carter from being formally appointed governor. As of April 1869, he was no longer in public office.

Instead of going back to Tennessee, James Carter stayed in the Arizona Territory and invested in a business. He bought two-thirds of the shares in a flour mill at Altar in Sonora , Mexico. In July 1869 he left Tucson to stay in Mexico for a while to go about his business, but did not return. He died from an illness at the age of 47 on September 29, 1869 at Rancho San Francisco , Mexico between Cabroca and Puerto Libertad. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of death. Presumably he died of malaria or some other chronic illness that he may have contracted while in Panama . The injuries he sustained in a buggy accident shortly before his death likely played their part as well. After his death, the family returned to Carter County, Tennessee, where some of his descendants still live today.

family

James Patton Taylor Carter comes from a wealthy and celebrity family. His great-grandfather, Colonel John Carter, was born in Virginia in 1737 and was married to Elizabeth Taylor for the first time. Landon Carter, the only child of John and Elizabeth Carter, was born on January 29, 1760. Elizabeth died in childbirth. After her death, John married a woman named Susan. He also founded a trading post around 1769 near what is now Rogersville, Tennessee. Soon after, he settled near the Watauga area, where he became a prominent and wealthy settler. John Carter died in Washington County , Tennessee in 1781 .

Landon Carter, son of John and Elizabeth, became known as Colonel Carter. He was active in the War of Independence (1775–1783), as well as in politics. Landon attended Davidson College and married Elizabeth Maclin in 1784. Carter County in Tennessee was named after him and its district town after his wife (see Elizabethton ). Landon and Elizabeth Carter had seven children together. Landon Carter died in June 1800.

Their oldest child, Alfred Moore Carter (1784–1850), was a wealthy iron producer from Carter County. His first marriage was in 1810 with a Matilda M. Wendell, but she died in 1816. He then married in 1818 an Evalina Belmont Perry from Virginia. Alfred and Evalina's youngest child was James Patton Taylor Carter. He was named Taylor after James Patton Taylor, husband of Alfred's sister Mary Cocke (Carter).

James Carter also had two prominent older brothers: Samuel Powhatton Carter and William Blount Carter. Samuel, eldest son of Alfred and Evalina Carter, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland . He was the only man in history to hold the rank of Rear Admiral in the Navy and Major General ( brevet ) in the US Army at the same time . William graduated from Princeton University and was a Presbyterian pastor. All three Carter brothers were very active in the Civil War in eastern Tennessee.

Samuel P. Carter was responsible for organizing U.S. forces in southeast Kentucky for the summer and fall of 1861. In August he named his brother, James PT Carter, colonel and commanding officer of the 2nd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment . A historical account of James Carter's service as Colonel in the regiment is in doubt. The appointment was clearly nepotism . James certainly did not have an officer license .

literature

• Notable Southern Families: Carter of Tennessee by David Wendel Carter, page 20.
• Col. James PT Carter of Carter County by John S. Goff , published in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly , Winter 1967, pages 372-382.
• Historical Reminiscences of Carter County, Tennessee , written by Mildred Kozsuch , pp. 136-139.
• Pension file of William P. Lowery on file at the National Archives in Washington, DC
• Watauga Spinnerette , January-February 1954, pages 46-48.
• Arizona Territorial Officials , Volume 4, "The Secretaries, United States Attorneys, Marshals, Surveyors General and Superintendents of Indian Affairs 1863-1912" by John S. Goff , pages 20-25, published by Black Mountain Press .
• Biography of James Carter , which includes the military reports, letters, wills and newspaper clippings. It is owned by the University of Arizona, Hayden Library .
• War of the Rebellion Official Records , Episode 1, Volume 23, Part 1, Page 372.

Web links

• Governor of Arizona in the database of NNDB (English)
• Death report in The Miner newspaper on October 16, 1869
• Article about Carter's military service