Samuel McDonald Carter is the owner of the largest and most valuable plantation in Murray county, commonly known as "Carter's Quarter," on which he has resided nearly half a century. He was born in Baldwin county, near Milledgeville, in 1826. His family and ancestors have been prominent in the public affairs of Georgia during several generations, and have borne an honorable and distinguished part in the history of this state, while contributing largely to its social and industrial progress.

His paternal grandfather, Maj. Carter, served in the patriot army during the war of the revolution and was killed in the battle of Augusta, toward the close of that prolonged struggle, for human rights and independence.

His father, Farish Carter, was born in South Carolina, but was reared in Georgia and settled in Baldwin county about 1809, where he resided until his death in 1861. Farish Carter was an active business man, and an extensive and successful planter. Early in life by his zeal, industry and good management, he accumulated a large fortune, and his influence in political and financial affairs was felt throughout the state. Cartersville, the prosperous county seat of Bartow county, received its name in his honor. He married Miss Eliza McDonald, sister of Hon. Charles James McDonald, a distinguished citizen of Georgia, an associate justice of the supreme court and governor of the state from 1839 to 1843.

The issue of this marriage was five children: Samuel McD., Mary, who married Jonathan Davis, of South Carolina; Catharine, wife of Dr. John H. Furman, of that state; Benjamin, who died while representing Murray county in the general assembly, and James.

The mother of Col. Carter died in Baldwin county in 1865.

He was educated in that county and at Oglethorpe college, from which institution he was graduated about 1846. In 1850 he settled in Murray county upon his plantation, where he has since resided, an esteemed, respected and influential citizen. During the war, from 1861 to 1865, he supported the cause of the Confederacy.

In 1850 he married Miss Emily Colquitt, daughter of Senator Walter T. Colquitt, and sister of the late Senator Alfred H. Colquitt. They reared five children: Farish, who died while a student at Norwood school in Virginia; Colquitt, at present clerk of the United States district court for the northern district of Georgia, residing at Atlanta; Mary, now deceased, who became the wife of Benjamin H. Hill, of the Atlanta bar; Kate C., who married Prof. Robert Emmett Mitchell, of Atlanta, and Benjamin P., married Lillian Whitman, of Dalton, Ga., at present residing in Atlanta, and is in the service of the agricultural department. The wife of Col Carter died in Murray county in 1867.

He was again married to Miss Sallie Jeter, daughter of William Lamar Jeter, for-merlv of Columbus, Ga. This lady was a grand-niece of Mirabeau B. Lamar and ex-Senator Walter T. Colquitt. By this marriage he had five children: Emily Colquitt, wife of Hal Divine, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Sallie Jeter, Pauline, Samuel McD., Jr., and Eliza. Col. Carter has four grand-children : Mary Hill, and Emily Cornelia, daughters of Benjamin F.; Robert Emmett, son of Kate C. Mitchell, and Rebecca Lamar, daughter of Emily C. Divine.

Note that this was written in 1895 from Memoirs of Georgia, 1895.

 

Murray County Families