1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 254-255
FRANK CARPENTER, the subject of this biographical
sketch, occupies a prominent position among the young and enterprising farmers
of Delaware county. As
a judicious tiller of the soil he has met with success and as a man and citizen
holds a good position among his neighbors. His life has been one of unabated
industry and he takes an active interest in that which is going on around him,
and which most nearly affects the welfare of his community.
The first
recollections of our subject are of a modest home in Rock county, Wis., where he first opened his
eyes to the light on the fourteenth of March, 1855. His father,
Daniel Carpenter, was a native of New York and a hard-working industrious man.
Soon after his marriage he located in Vermont, where he resided about
one year, and then emigrated to Rock county, Wis. He was one of the first
settlers in that section of the country, and, like
those around him, endured the
hardships and privations incident to that time and
locality. The flourishing city of Racine, eighty miles distant,
was the nearest trading-point, and lumber
and provision had to be hauled from
there. The country in that vicinity was known as "Oak Openings,"
that is, part timber and part prairie. In 1860, after a residence
of twenty years in that state, Daniel Carpenter removed with his family to Delaware county,
Iowa, where he had already purchased considerable land. He settled in Oneida township,
where he farmed quite extensively till his death, which occurred in 1880. He
was a good citizen and left quite an estate as a monument to his own
perseverance and industry. The paternal grandfather of our subject was John
Carpenter, who was probably a native of New York, although little is known
concerning his personal history. He conducted a hotel, operated a mill and
farmed some. Of the ancestral history of the Carpenter family little is known,
but it is generally believed to be of English descent. The mother of our
subject bore the maiden name of Sabra Tillotson, a native of New York and a lifelong member of the Methodist
church. She is now living in Earlville.
There are
six children in the family - four boys and two girls - all of whom are now
living. George, the eldest, is a prosperous farmer in Guthrie county, Iowa; McDonough is a retired farmer
living in Canton, South
Dakota; Elisha is conducting a farm near
Earlville, this county; Violet is the wife of Samuel Ede,
and lives in Earlville; Carrie, the youngest daughter, is the wife of Alva
Long, a well-to-do farmer of Oneida township.
Frank,
concerning whom this sketch is especially written, obtained a good, fair
common-school education, and at the age of twenty-one entered the Bayllis Commercial College at Dubuque. He completed a full course in that
institution, which has fitted him for the successful transaction of all kinds
of business. At the age of twenty-four he purchased one hundred and sixty acres
of land a short distance west of the village of Greeley, and began farming for himself. Two
years later he exchanged that for three hundred and twenty acres on section 12,
in Oneida township,
paying the difference in cash.
Mr.
Carpenter was married November 27, 1879, to Miss Emma E. Smith, daughter of
Charles Smith. She was born in Delaware county, December
12, 1860.
Her father was a native of England and came to the United States about 1835. He was only fourteen
years of age when he crossed the Atlantic and landed on the shores of the new world. He remained in New York State several years, and not until 1856
did he come West to locate. He was a resident of Delaware county for
twenty-seven years, and was honored and respected by all who knew him. He died
in 1883. The mother of Mrs. Carpenter bore the maiden name of Jane Miller, a
native of York State, and the mother of twelve children,
seven of whom are now living. She was a zealous Christian woman, and strove to
rear her children in the paths of virtue and honesty. Her death occurred in
1883.
The
congenial union of Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter has resulted in the birth of five
children as follows-Elbert B. born August 26, 1880; Charles D., born February
12, 1882; Elisha L., born March 30, 1883 (deceased); infant
son, born July 30, 1884 (deceased); Earnest H., born July 29, 1886.
Mr.
Carpenter is too busy with the everyday affairs of life to take much interest
in politics. He usually supports the republican ticket, but votes for competent
men regardless of party lines. He owns a fine estate of four hundred and
eighty acres, which he has improved to a very high state of cultivation.
In 1888 he erected a handsome and substantial frame residence, which is neatly
and tastefully furnished throughout. His farm, with its buildings, stock
and machinery, indicates the care and supervision of a progressive,
intelligent, thrifty farmer.
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