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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County
Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908

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The Biography of Thomas E. CARTER 

[Surnames: CAMPBELL, CARTER, DRAKE, FITCH, HOARD, JENKINS, LILLY, MORAN, RENFROW] 

CARTER, THOMAS E. 

    
Successfully engaged in farming on Sect. 4, Buckheart Twp., he was born in Arcadia, Sullivan County, TN, on Jan. 31, 1877, son of Enoch H. and Mary (Lilly) Carter, natives of Virginia, the former born in Scott County, VA, and the latter in Washington Co., VA. 
    
The were the parents of 12 children, (10 of whom have located in Illinois, the entire list of which follows: Maggie, wife of D. D. Renfrow, proprietor of a grocery and meat market in Cuba; Hattie, deceased wife of William Hoard; James I.,a farmer in Canton Twp.; Richard G., a farmer located just east of Cuba; Thomas E.; Angeline, wife of Nimrod Jenkins, a farmer in Buckheart Twp.; Lewis of Oregon, Illinois; Catherine, wife of Marshall Drake, who is on the farm with Thomas E.; Garfield, a farmer of Danville, IL; Rebecca, wife of James Campbell, of Indian Springs, Sullivan County, TN; and George, who died in Tennessee, Mar. 17, 1891. 
    
The mother of this family died about 1885. The father married, as his 2nd wife, Josephine Fitch, who bore him two children, Ellen, and one other, who are still at the old home in Tennessee. 
    
On the outbreak of the Civil War he was a resident of Virginia, but always loyal to the Union, and was forced into the Confederate Army. Three times he escaped, and finally contrived to reach Bowling Green, KY, traveling all night in a stream of water to evade the blood- hounds. In Bowling Green, in 1861, he enlisted in Co. C, 14th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, and took part in all the engagements until 1865. 
    
The subject of this sketch was reared to farm life, and received his early training in the common schools of his native State. At age 17 he heeded the words of Horace Greeley, "Go West, young man," and left the hills of TN, arriving in Bryant, Fulton County, in 1893. 
    
He devoted some years to farming, carpentering, and mining, working by the month, and in 1898 went to Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota, for about one year. He returned to Fulton County in 1899 and was employed in the mines at St. David. In the Spring of 1904, he bought a half- interest in the stock farm and implements of Joseph Moran, and is now operating 280 acres, and raises and feeds many cattle. In politics he is a Republican.