Alameda County Biographies

H. K. CARTER

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	Was born in the town of Tully, Onondaga County, New York, March 22, 1826.  In the 
spring of 1840 his father, Philip Carter, with his family moved to Fort Brewerton, town of 
Cicero, in the same county, and engaged in the business of tanning and farming, which he had 
previously carried on from the spring of 1849 to 1856.  Mr. Carter engaged in tanning and the 
wood and lumber trade, but in the fall of the latter year his tannery was burnt, and meeting 
with heavy losses during the following year in the great financial crash in the State of New 
York, he determined to try his luck on the Pacific Coast.  Coming to California in the spring 
of 1858, he went to Olympia, Washington Territory, and there associating himself with James 
Biles, built a tannery and was the first to introduce steam and machinery in that industry on 
the coast. In the fall of 1860, he returned to San Francisco and opened a finishing and leather 
store which he continued until 1862, when he went into the stock and money brokers� business 
until 1864.  A portion of this and the year 1865, he passed in Oregon, and Washington Territory, 
buying wheat, potatoes, etc., for the San Francisco market.  In the fall of 1865 he once more 
embarked in the tanning trade in San Francisco, which he abandoned in the fall of 1867, since 
when he has been engaged in the fruit and agriculture business, chiefly in Contra Costa and 
Alameda Counties.  Married in Fort Brewerton, Onondaga County, New York, October 21, 1852, Miss 
Hester A. R., daughter of Rev. E. D. Trakey, and has had two children:  LeRoy T., and a daughter, 
deceased.

History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 860-861