Sacramento Valley Biographies

HIAL KINYON CARTER

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, July 2009.

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

         An experience covering a quarter of a century or more has qualified
Hial Kinyon Carter to speak as interestingly and authoritatively upon the
subject of fruit growing in California as any man in the northern part of
the state. He has made a scientific study of soils and climate, of moisture
and winds, and because of his exhaustive knowledge has been called upon to
superintend the planting of trees best adapted to their particular
environment. In all he has overseen the setting out of at least two hundred
thousand trees, a fact which speaks for the confidence imposed in him by men
who are maintaining the state's reputation as a fruit growing center. Mr.
Carter's immediate occupation is the management of two hundred acres of
fruit land leased from the Cohen estate, upon which he located in April,
1896, and where he has since been engaged in the cultivation of assorted
fruits, including Muscatel raisin grapes of which he has one hundred and
thirty acres; pears, fifteen acres; and the balance in general fruits, the
care of the property requiring many assistants, especially during the
harvest season.

        Various occupations have been crowded between the seventy-eight mile
posts of Mr. Carter's career. His life has been a broad and interesting one,
as has been those of his immediate connections. He was born near Syracruse,
Onondaga county, N. Y., March 22, 1826, and his father, Philip, was born up
in the Catskill mountains, in Catskill county, the same state. His
grandfather, Rufus, was also a native of New York state, and was a
blacksmith by trade, an occupation which enabled him to be of service to the
staff of General Washington during the war of the Revolution. Philip Carter
lived on a farm in the Catskills for many years, and afterward farmed and
ran a distillery in Onondaga county. As early as 1820 he was shipping
whiskey down the Susquehanna river, but after he became crippled he gave up
the distillery and built a tannery on his farm. This departure proved
profitable and he subsequently added the manufacturing of boots and shoes,
following this the balance of his life. In 1840 he removed to Fort
Brewerton, in the northern part of the county, continued his tannery
business, and died there in 1873, at the age of seventy-three. During the
war of 1812 he was drafted into the service, but enlisted only a few days
before the termination of hostilities. Through his marriage with Prudence
Salisbury, of English decent, and born in Onondaga county, eight children
were born, five sons and three daughters, four of whom are living.

       Hial Kinyon Carter is the only one of his father's family who settled
in the west, coming hither in the summer of 1858. As a boy he worked in his
father's tannery, and after attaining his majority thoroughly mastered the
trade, in time purchasing his father's business and conducting it until the
plant was destroyed by fire in 1857. Arriving in San Francisco in the fall
of 1858, he lived there a few months, and then took the steamer to Olympia,
Washington territory, entertaining large expectations from a tanning
business conducted during the influx of miners at the time of the Fraser
river excitement. He built the first tannery in Washington territory,
located at Tumwater, two miles from Olympia, and engaged in business there
until 1861, and in connection with the same brought the first
leather-splitting machine to the Pacific coast. This tannery is still
standing, a silent and crumbling reminder of pioneer industry. 

     Returning to San Francisco in the fall of 1861, Mr. Carter opened a
leather store and finishing shop to handle the leather from the Olympia
factory, but at the end of a year sold his entire business and engaged in a
money brokerage business in San Francisco. He spent the winter of 1864-65 in
Oregon, purchasing wheat of growers throughout the Willamette valley in
Oregon, which he reached overland from California, and in June, 1865,
returned to San Francisco. The following September he rented a tannery on
the corner of Sixth and Brannan streets, San Francisco,  and for two years
manufactured leather, selling out in the spring of 1868 and engaging in
farming in Contra Costa county, sixteen miles from Oakland. His farm was the
old Bryant ranch, upon which he conducted extensive general farming and
stock-raising operations until 1870, in which year he sold out, and for the
next ten years made his home in San Francisco.

    In the spring of 1880 Mr. Carter bought a cherry orchard just outside
the city limits of Oakland, operated the same for four years, and then sold
it at a large profit. At the same time he engaged in a canning business at
Temescal, between Oakland and Berkeley, and finally became outside buyer for
the fruit canning concern of William T. Coleman & Company. For years he
purchased fruit throughout the state, and at the same time spent his leisure
in advising fruit growers regarding the kind of fruit to raise on their
property and superintending the setting out of thousands of trees which are
now yielding harvests of luscious fruit. In 1888 he made his home in
Oakland, buying and selling fruit on his own responsibility, and in 1896
became identified with Yolo county.

    In New York state Mr. Carter was united in marriage with Hester A.
Trakey, who was born in New Hampshire, and removed to New York with her
parents when twenty years of age. Her father, Ebenezer D. Trakey, a
Methodist Episcopal clergyman, was born in New Hampshire, as was also her
mother, formerly Patience Downes, a native of Rochester. Rev. Mr. Trakey was
an enthusiastic fraternalist, and joined the Masonic order in 1810. After
removing to New York state he founded many lodges, of which he served as
chaplain, and in all was a member of the organization for sixty-three years.
His wife died in 1870, and he survived her until 1888, his death terminating
a career of great usefulness and breadth. Mrs. Carter, who is the only child
in her parents' family, is the mother of one son, Leroy T., who is his
father's assistant on the fruit ranch. Mr. Carter has been a Republican
since the organization of that party, casting his first presidential vote
for John C. Fremont. His wife is a member of the Eastern Star. He is popular
with his employees, his many business associates, and wields an influence in
fruit growing circles commen-surate with his rare knowledge, his painstaking
methods, and his efforts to maintain a high horticultural standard for Yolo
county.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 562-563.