H. J. CARTER was born in the city of Concord, N. H., January 23, 1841, and is the third son of John and Margaret (Dow) Carter. Subject's paternal ancestors were natives of New Hampshire, and of English descent. The father, John Carter, was a farmer by occupation, and died in his native county in 1869, aged about seventy years. Subject's mother, Margaret Carter, is a daughter of Samuel Dow, who died in New Hampshire in the year 1847 or 1848. Mrs. Carter is still living in her native State at an advanced age. The subject of this sketch attended the common schools of his native city, and later the New London and Pembroke Academies; in 1856, he entered Darmouth College, but was not able to complete his course, owing to poor health, which compelled him to leave school at the end of the second year. After quitting college he went on a tour South and stopped in Alabama, where he engaged in teaching, which profession he followed until the breaking out of the war. He espoused the Southern cause, and enlisted in Wirt Adams' celebrated cavalry regiment, with which he served until after the battle of Shiloh, when he was transferred to the Third Alabama Cavalry, and assigned to duty on Gen. Wheeler's staff as topographical engineer. He afterward served on Col. Hagan's staff in the same capacity, and acquired the reputation of being one of the most skillful engineers in his division of the army. In the summer of 1863, he was captured at Shelbyville, Tenn., and confined in the Federal prisons at Nashville, Louisville, Camp Chase, Fort Delaware and Point Look-out, remaining at the latter place until the close of the war. During his confinement at Point Lookout he was elected president of the Y. M. C. A., organized among the prisoners, and also had executive charge of the prisoners' camp school, which numbered over 1,500 pupils, and employed fifty teachers. Mr Carter looks upon the time spent in connection with the prison school as the most useful and pleasant period of his life, and he is in receipt of numerous congratulatory letters from his pupils, many of whom are now holding positions of trust in various States. At the close of the war Mr. Carter returned to Alabama and accepted a professorship in the Female Academy, at Livingston, which position he filled until the fall of 1870, when he removed to Mississippi, and established the Male High School at the town of Meridian, remaining there for a period of nine years. In 1879, he came to Princeton, Ky., and accepted a professorship in Princeton College, with which institution he was connected one year. After severing his connection, Mr. Carter engaged in the drug business, which he still carries on, having one of the oldest drug houses in Princeton. Mr. Carter was married, December 25, 1860, to Miss Abbie A. Carrington, daughter of Robert M. Carrington, of Saratoga, N. Y. This union has been blessed by one child: Lake T. Mr. Carter stands high in the Masonic fraternity and K. of G. R.; he is a member of the Presbyterian Church South, as is also his wife.
Source: J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Page 693.