Luman D Carter

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY1911

Luman D. Carter, for many years a resident of Lyle township and village, and now a resident of Austin township, has been a prominent man in the county, and has worthily and ably filled county, township and village office. He was born near Montreal, Canada, March 7, 1841, son of John A. and Charlotte (Phelps) Carter, of New England birth, and French and English ancestry. He came to the United States with his parents in 1854, lived in Burlington, Wis., and in September, 1859, at the age of eighteen years came to Austin township.

After arriving here he attended the Austin public schools, and lays credit to the claim of being the oldest man living in the county who received his education in Mower county schools.

He taught school for a year and then enlisted in Company B, Second Minnesota Cavalry, serving until mustered out, December 24, 1865. During a part of this time he did service on the frontier against the Indians. He was confined for a time in a hospital at Sauk Center as the result of an injury to his foot, caused by a runaway accident.

In 1865 he returned to Mower county and took up farming in Lyle township, where he purchased 160 acres. To this tract he added from time to time until he owned 320 acres, following farming in Lyle township, and dividing his place of residence between the township and village until 1891, when he removed to Austin, where he lived nine years. In 1900 he purchased his present home, prettily located on the banks of the Red Cedar river near Varco station. He rents out his land and is enjoying the rest that his many years of hard toil well deserves.

Mr. Carter is a Republican in politics. He served nearly three years as deputy sheriff of Mower county; was village recorder of Lyle for one year; mayor of Lyle village one year; justice of the peace in Lyle township several terms and assessor of Lyle village and township for fourteen years. He belongs to the Masonic order and to the G. A. R. The subject of this sketch was married September 23, 1863, to Mary E. Burgess, daughter of Johnathan Burgess, who came to Lyle township in 1861.

Mr. and Mrs. Carter have been blessed with seven children: Charles L., Edward F., Carrie, Minnie, Orel L., Nellie M., and Edith. Charles L. is a manufacturer, living in Fort Dodge, Iowa; Edward F. is a telegraph operator in Mojara, Cal.; Carrie is the wife of John J. Ingledrum, a real estate dealer in South Bend., Ind.; Minnie is the wife of Edward DeGraff, a jeweler, of LeRoy, Minn.; Oral L., a former teacher, is the wife of Fred Lewis, a traveling salesman out of Austin; Nellie M. is the wife of John Lewis, of Austin; Edith is the wife of W. J. Tyler, of Coeur d'Alene, the editor of the Journal in that place. The family faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Mr. Carter has many recollections of the early days in this state. In the spring of 1863, as he often tells with relish, he rented a piece of land in section 27, Austin township, before enlisting in the army. When he left for the frontier he gave his father charge of the matter and requested him to dispose of the wheat which in harvest time was to come to him for the rental of the land. His father had the wheat threshed, and at a cost of thirty cents a bushel hauled to Winona, where it brought but forty cents per bushel. This, Mr. Carter declares, was his last experience at renting land.