Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#2230
FARISH CARTER PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Farish Carter (1780-1861), planter, land
speculator, and entrepreneur of Scottsborough
Plantation, near Milledgeville, Baldwin County,
Georgia, also owned a plantation at Coosawattee,
Murray County, Georgia. Carter married Eliza
McDonald, sister of Charles J. McDonald (1793-1860),
and had five children: Mary Ann (d. 1844), Catherine
(d. 1851), James Farish (b. 1821), Samuel McDonald,
and Benjamin Franklin (d. 1856).
Primarily business papers, 1830-1860, and some
family correspondence. Most papers relate to Carter's
buying, selling, and renting land in Georgia, Florida,
and Tennessee; his financial interest in New Hope, a
sugar plantation in Louisiana; his part ownership of
the Coweta Falls Manufacturing Company, a textile mill
in Columbus, Georgia; his buying, selling, and hiring
out slaves; his investments in railroads, banks, gold
mining, steamboats, toll bridges, ferries, mills, and
other ventures; and his and his sons' operations of
plantations in Georgia and Alabama.
Online Catalog Terms:
Alabama--Agriculture [local heading].
Baldwin County (Ga.).
Carter, Benjamin Franklin, d. 1856.
Carter, Eliza McDonald, fl. 1820-1862.
Carter, Farish, 1780-1861.
Carter, James Farish, b. 1821.
Carter, Samuel McDonald, fl. 1851-1860.
Columbus (Ga.).
Coosawattee (Ga.).
Cotton manufacture--Georgia.
Cotton trade--Georgia.
Coweta Falls Manufacturing Company.
Florida--History, 1821-1865.
Georgia--Agriculture [local heading].
Louisiana--Agriculture [local heading].
McDonald, Charles J., 1793-1860.
Milledgeville (Ga.).
Murray County (Ga.).
New Hope Plantation (La.).
Plantation owners--Georgia.
Plantations--Alabama.
Plantations--Georgia.
Plantations--Louisiana.
Railroads--Georgia.
Real property--Florida.
Real property--Georgia.
Real property--Tennessee.
Scottsborough Plantation (Ga.).
Slavery--Georgia.
Size: About 2800 items (2.5 linear feet).
Provenance: Gift of Mrs. John L. Smith in 1940.
Access: No restrictions.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or
their descendants, as stipulated by United States
copyright law.
INTRODUCTION
Biographical Note
Farish Carter was born in South Carolina on 24 November 1780,
the son of James and Letitia Martin Carter. James Carter was
killed by the British during the siege of Augusta in September
1780, two months before his son was born.
Farish Carter attended the academy of the Reverend Hope Hull
in Washington, Georgia. He became a merchant in Sandersville and
during the War of 1812 served as United States Army contractor
for Georgia. With the resulting profits, he bought a plantation
at Scottsboro, four miles south of Milledgeville, and another
estate, Bonavista, on the Oconee River. By 1845, he owned 33,293
acres and 426 slaves in Baldwin County alone. Rock Spring or
Coosawattee, his north Georgia plantation and summer home (in
Murray and Gilmer Counties), purchased during the Cherokee
removal, encompassed over 15,000 acres and produced a wide range
of goods--tobacco, wool, livestock, grains, and other foodstuffs.
Carter also controlled a Louisiana sugar plantation for several
years, ca. 1830-1835.
With many partners and companies, Carter conducted extensive
land speculations, shifting westward with the frontier, and
including the acquisition of former Cherokee, Chickasaw, and
Chocktaw possessions, and eventually holdings in Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Indiana, and
Illinois.
Carter invested the income from agricultural and land ventures
in a variety of enterprises. He owned interests in grist mills,
marble quarries, and a woolen mill in north Georgia; a cigar
factory with slave children as laborers; toll bridges and ferries
throughout Georgia; and steamboats on the Ocmulgee, Oconee,
Altamaha, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers. He held large
blocks of stock in Georgia banks and railroads and financed gold
mining in north Georgia and North Carolina. His slaves were
leased to railroads and to individuals.
Carter tried to develop textile mills to utilize the cotton
produced on his plantation, especially during the 1840s when
cotton prices were low. He helped to establish a short-lived
mill at Tom's Shoal on the Oconee in the 1830s and became part
owner of the Coweta Falls Factory (1844), the first textile mill
within the city of Columbus. There, in 1845, Carter began
constructing another six-story factory, where he planned to use
slave labor. However, disputes over water rights, the near
failure of Coweta Falls, and rising cotton prices led him to keep
his slaves in the field, and the Carter Factory remained empty
until the Civil War began and its first owner died.
Farish Carter married Eliza McDonald on 26 April 1811. Mrs.
Carter was the sister of Charles J. McDonald (1793-1860), who was
governor of Georgia from 1839 to 1843. Eliza McDonald and Farish
Carter had five children: Mary Ann (d. 1844), Catherine (d.
1851), James Farish (b. 1821), Samuel McDonald, and Benjamin
Franklin (d. 1856). Mary Ann married a Mr. Davis in 1844, and
died a few months later. Catherine married a Dr. Furman, had two
sons, and died in 1851. Her two sons, John and Farish, were
raised for the next six years by her parents, and then returned
to live with their father. James married Mary [Powell?] and had
one child, Mary. James's first wife apparently died in the early
1850s and he married Bettie [surname unknown] in about 1855.
Samuel married Emily Colquitt, daughter of Walter Terry Colquitt
(1799-1855), and had several children. Benjamin did not marry
and died in 1856.
Farish Carter died on 2 July 1861.
(See John S. Lupold, "Farish Carter," Dictionary of Georgia
Biography, Kenneth Coleman and Charles Stephen Gurr, ed., vol. 1,
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 198?)
Collection Overview
This collection primarily documents the business activities of
Farish Carter 1830-1860. Most of the papers relate to Carter's
buying, selling, and renting land in Georgia, Florida, and
Tennessee. Much of the collection consists of Carter's
correspondence with his partners in land companies or with agents
who sought out or managed lands for him. Other papers concern
management of a sugar plantation in Louisiana; buying, selling,
and hiring out slaves; operation of a small cotton mill in
Columbus, Georgia, the Coweta Falls Manufacturing Company; and
Carter's other interests in Columbus, the Water Lots Company and
the Variety Works. Carter's involvement in legal controversies
about ownership of land and slaves in Florida and about his
administration of the estate of George W. Murray are documented
in the correspondence and in the financial and legal papers.
In the later part of the correspondence are letters from
Carter's wife giving news of his home plantation and letters from
his sons describing operations of their plantations in Alabama
and in north Georgia. Some of Carter's other business interests
are indicated but not thoroughly documented--investing in
railroads, owning a toll bridge, searching for gold in northern
Georgia, owning an interest in a marble quarry, owning
steamboats. Only a small part of the correspondence gives family
news.
The papers are arranged as follows:
Series 1. Correspondence (About 1500 items)
Subseries 1.1. 1812-1829 (About 80 items)
Subseries 1.2. 1830-1850 (About 900 items)
Subseries 1.3. 1851-1864 (About 500 items)
Subseries 1.4. Undated (About 20 items)
Series 2. Financial and Legal Papers (About 1300 items)
Subseries 2.1. Financial and Legal Papers (About 1300 items)
Subseries 2.1.1. 1794, 1806-1812 (About 20 items)
Subseries 2.1.2. 1813-1829 (About 200 items)
Subseries 2.1.3. 1830-1835 (About 200 items)
Subseries 2.1.4. 1836-1842 (About 300 items)
Subseries 2.1.5. 1843-1859 (About 500 items)
Subseries 2.1.6. 1860-1868 (About 10 items)
Subseries 2.1.7. Undated (About 80 items)
Subseries 2.2. Account Books (2 items)
Series 3. Picture (1 item)
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Correspondence
1812-1864. About 1500 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Subseries 1.1. 1812-1829.
About 80 items.
Chiefly business correspondence of Farish Carter. The
earliest items are scattered business letters, 1812-1824.
Letters of 1825 include four letters from Joel Crawford about
family matters and mutual business. To one of Crawford's letters
is attached a letter from Peter F. Jaillet distressed over the
brutality of a Mr. Moran to one of Jaillet's slaves, and asking
advice. Other notable letters are from Josiah B. Furman,
Charleston, S. C., dated 18 July 1825, about buying the ship
"Maid of Orleans" and fitting her out for the cotton trade, and
several from Simon Whitaker, Coopers Bridge, Ga., about Carter's
toll bridge, livestock, and crops there.
A number of letters during this period and extending into the
1830s relate to the company formed by Farish Carter, Dr. Charles
Williamson of Tallahassee, Florida, and Seaton Grantland of
Milledgeville, Georgia, to purchase, claim, or preempt lands in
Florida and Georgia. Richard Keith Call was one of the agents
for this company. There are also letters from James Webb and
from Thomas Baltzell of Webbville, Florida, to Williamson about
lands in Florida.
Letters from Thomas Butler & Co., commission and general
merchants of Savannah, Ga., concern the selling of Carter's
cotton and Carter's purchases of groceries and general
merchandise.
Folder 1 1812-1824
2 1825-1826
3 1827
4 1828-1829
Subseries 1.2. 1830-1850.
About 900 items.
Primarily business correspondence of Farish Carter along with
a few family letters of Carter and his wife. There are letters
about management of New Hope Plantation, Bayou Salle, Franklin,
Louisiana. Many letters discuss purchase, sale, and rental of
land in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. Other letters concern
Carter's gold mining interests; management of his north Georgia
plantation at Coosawattee; a lawsuit in which Carter was involved
in Florida; management of the Coweta Falls Manufacturing Company;
and other aspects of Carter's business.
In 1830 through 1835 are letters concerning New Hope
Plantation, Bayou Salle, Franklin, Louisiana. Carter's partner
in ownership of New Hope, John Sherwood Thomas, wrote to Carter
from New Hope about conditions and planting there. In 1833 are
letters of Littleton Atkison reporting on the sale in Franklin,
La., of Negroes and land owned by Carter. In a letter of 5 June
1833, Martin Thomas (brother of John Sherwood Thomas), wrote
about his management of New Hope Plantation.
Letters from J. H. Walker of Webbville, Florida, to his uncle
Farish Carter concern his management and rental of Carter's lands
in Florida and his efforts to sell Carter's company's
Chattahoochee lands and other Florida properties. Letters from
Seaton Grantland in 1836 discuss a private bill introduced by
Grantland in the U. S. House of Representatives that would allow
Carter and Grantland to enter lands in Florida. Letters from
Richard H. Long of Marianna, county seat of Jackson County,
Florida, about Carter's Florida properties and legal affairs in
Florida begin in 1835 and continue throughout the subseries.
Letters from Littleton Atkison in 1833 and 1834 informed
Carter about properties of interest to Carter, especially in
Louisiana, Alabama, and Cherokee and Choctaw lands. Letters from
Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864) from Decatur, Allatoona, and
Marietta, Georgia and from Thomas R. Huson of Marietta between
1838 and 1843 concern their association in purchasing Cherokee
lands in Georgia and Tennessee.
In 1836 begin letters from LeRoy M. Wiley of Charleston, S.
C., one of the principals of Wiley, Baxter, and Carter, a company
apparently formed to pursue land and mining interests. A few
letters from Wiley to Carter appear in the papers in nearly every
year between 1836 and 1856. The later letters written from New
York. In a long letter of 29 May 1837, Wiley described his ideas
about the U. S. Bank, money, and gold mining in Georgia and North
Carolina. Other letters discuss railroads, banks, and other
business ventures, as well as buying and selling land.
After 1839, there are also letters about the business of the
land speculating partnership of Boyce, Carter, and Hines. Ker
Boyce of Charleston, S. C., and Richard K. Hines of
Milledgeville, Ga., wrote to Carter as did Samuel Williams of
Chattanooga, Tennessee, who worked as an agent for the firm.
A letter from Caleb Gurz, apparently an overseer on Carter's
north Georgia plantation, dated 20 January 1838, reports on
planting and conditions at Coosawattee. From this time forward,
letters from various tenants or overseers headed Coosawattee,
Rock Spring, or Spring Place appear often. Letters from A. M.
Turner at Coosawattee to Carter continue intermittently from 1839
until 1859. Benjamin Poore, who wrote from Coosawattee on 21
April 1840 had written to Carter from Indian Hill Farm,
Newburyport, Massachusetts on 13 and 21 December 1839 about
sending skilled white workmen to Georgia and joining Carter in
business there.
Beginning in 1843, there are many letters about a lawsuits
over land and Negroes in Florida in addition to continuing
letters about land and other business. A. T. Bennett was
Carter's opponent in the cases. Letters about these lawsuits
continue until 1855. These letters came from Richard Long of
Marianna, Reuben Thornton of Tallahassee, George Baltzell,
William A. Kain, Caraway Smith, and William A. Long of
Apalachicola, Florida, Hines Holt of Columbus, Georgia, J. A. L.
Lee, and others. Legal papers related to the cases are filed in
Series 2, Financial and Legal Material.
James A. Whiteside wrote to Carter from Milledgeville,
Decatur, and Nashville, Tenn., in 1845 about Carter's steamboat,
which operated on the Tennessee River, about the railroad in
Tennessee, and other business. In 1846, Whiteside wrote to
Carter from Nashville, Tennessee, and from Augusta, Ga., about
the progress of the railroad to Chattanooga and about securing
mail contracts for the railroad.
Throughout the 1840s, Carter received letters from his nephew
John B. Baird, who was apparently managing Carter's business
interests in Columbus, Georgia. In the early 1840s, the letters
generally concern collecting money owed Carter. Beginning in
1845, most of the letters are about the Coweta Falls
Manufacturing Company, a small cotton mill of which Carter was
part owner. There are also letters from John H. Howard, from J.
C. Leitner, manager of the Coweta Falls Company, and from others
to Carter about the company.
A letter dated 8 April 1846 from Mary Carter and Carter's son
James F. Carter in Union Spr., Ala., to Farish Carter in
Milledgeville reports on their life in Alabama. Beginning in
1849, there are letters from James Carter to Farish Carter which
describe his planting and management of his plantation. These
letters report in detail on the status of the crops and always
mention the health of the people on the plantation. These
letters do not refer to his wife but do report on "little Mary
Carter," apparently James's daughter who apparently lived near
James with her grandparents, the Powells.
Scattered throughout the subseries are letters concerning
buying and selling slaves and the problems of managing slaves.
Carter's lawsuit in Florida, for example, involved slaves.
Thomas Butler wrote from Savannah, 2 June 1832, and LeRoy M.
Wiley wrote from New York, 11 November 1844, about runaway
slaves. Between 1850 and 1853, N. B. Powell wrote several
letters about selling slaves, hiring them out, moving them from
one place to another, and the problem of "ungovernable" slaves.
Also found throughout the subseries are a few letters about
prices and sale of cotton. Among these are letters which Charles
Hartridge of Savannah wrote to Carter between 1837 and 1859 and a
letter dated 6 February 1840 from Ker Boyce in Charleston, S. C.,
which described problems involved in shipping cotton to
Liverpool.
Other items of particular interest in this subseries include
letters throughout the period from Carter's brother-in-law
Charles J. McDonald on business and family matters, some letters
in 1836 about the bank at Milledgeville, Georgia, a letter of 11
June 1836 from Littleton Atkison about Indian attacks in Walker
County, an account dated 1845 of a robbery of Farish Carter's
home in Murray County written by a convict in the State
Penitentiary, and an agreement dated 14 December 1849 between
Bedney McDonald and his uncle Farish Carter as to his moral
conduct while in the California gold fields (although there is no
indication in the papers of whether McDonald actually went to
California).
Folder 5 1830
6-7 1831
8 1832
9 1833
10 1834
11 1835
12 1836
13 1837
14-15 1838
16-17 1839
18-19 1840
20 1841
21-22 1842
23-24 1843
25 1844
26-28 1845
29-31 1846
32 1847
33 1848
34-37 1849
38-40 1850
Subseries 1.3. 1851-1864.
About 500 items.
Business and family correspondence of Farish Carter, his wife
Eliza Carter, and his sons James, Samuel, and Benjamin Carter.
There are only three letters of 1859, one of 1860, three of 1861,
and one of 1864; the bulk of the letters in the subseries are
dated 1851-1858. During these years Mrs. Carter wrote frequently
to her husband while he was away from the plantation. She copied
and sent to him letters others had sent him and she kept him
informed of plantation activities, including news of house
servants and field hands. There are also letters from Samuel
McDonald Carter and his wife Emily Colquitt Carter, daughter of
Walter Terry Colquitt, who were living at Coosawattee, about
their family and about the plantation they were managing.
Benjamin F. Carter also lived at Coosawattee during some of this
period and wrote from there to his parents. James Carter wrote
from Chunennugger, Alabama, reporting on his plantation there.
In addition to family letters, letters about Carter's business
interests, old and new, continue to appear in this subseries.
There are letters in 1851, for example, from James A. Whiteside
in Chattanooga, Tennessee, about selling Carter's and Ker Boyce's
lands there. There are also letters from John B. Baird and
others about the financial problems of the Coweta Falls
Manufacturing Company and copies of two letters from Farish
Carter in 1851 to the directors of the company with instructions
on the course of action to follow to regain solvency. Throughout
the subseries, there are letters about buying and selling land,
buying and selling slaves, and borrowing and lending money. Many
of Carter's business associates who wrote the letters in
Subseries 1.2 also wrote letters found in this subseries: LeRoy
M. Wiley, Ker Boyce, Charles James McDonald, Thomas R. Huson,
Hines Holt, J. A. L. Lee, Charles Hartridge, William A. Long,
Richard H. Long, and J. H. Howard, for example.
Between 1851 and 1855, there are letters from Richard H. Long
and others about the lawsuit filed by A. T. Bennett against
Carter in Florida. Bennett had left Florida by 1852 and was in
New Orleans.
New business interests in this period include the Water Lot
Company and Variety Works of Columbus, Georgia. Letters from
Walter Terry Colquitt, Columbus, in 1851-1853, deal with these
companies and other business matters between Colquitt and Carter.
Additional items of particular interest in this subseries are
a letter dated 18 March 1851 from John H. Gresham of Macon about
starting up a steam powered mill there; a letter dated 27
February 1852 from J. E. Evans, Presiding Elder (no denomination
mentioned) desiring to send a missionary to the mill workers; a
letter dated 15 February 1853 from Benjamin F. Carter at
Coosawattee describing his plantation work and the hiring of
child labor for work in his tobacco factory; a letter dated 13
February 1854 from Andrew J. Hansell, Marietta, Georgia, about
the effects of an ordinance passed at Marietta "against Negroes
hiring their own time" or living on lots to themselves; a letter
dated 25 December 1854 from Charles James McDonald, Marietta,
about marriage customs among his slaves and family and business
matters; and letters of 1855 from Nicholas A. Long and Richard H.
Long of Marianna describing conditions in their part of Florida.
Folders 41-45 1851
46-49 1852
50-54 1853
55-56 1854
57 1855
58 1856
59 1857
60 1858
61 1859-1864
Subseries 1.4. Undated.
About 20 items.
Undated family and business correspondence, including some
fragments of letters, of Farish Carter, Eliza Carter, Benjamin
Carter, and Samuel Carter.
Folder 62
Series 2. Financial and Legal Material.
1794, 1806-1868. About 1500 items.
Arrangement: by type, then chronological.
Subseries 2.1. Financial and Legal Papers
1794, 1806-1868. About 1500 items.
Unbound financial and legal materials. Letters which are
essentially receipts are filed here. Other business letters are
filed in Series 1, Correspondence.
Subseries 2.1.1. 1794, 1806-1812
About 20 items.
Bills for purchases and other business dealings between Farish
Carter and James Rousseau, Seaton Grantland, Charles Williamson,
and others. Included are receipts and accounts of the firms of
Carter and Norris, Carter and McDougald, and Carter and Kendrick.
Notable items include a bill of sale for a slave sold by James
Rousseau to Farish Carter, 20 July 1812, and a list of bills of
four suppliers to the contractor of Baldwin Volunteers, dated
1812.
Folder 63
Subseries 2.1.2. 1813-1829.
About 200 items.
Bills, receipts, accounts, and legal papers of Farish Carter
and a few bills and receipts of James, Samuel, and Charles
McDonald. Throughout the subseries are bills for supplies, items
related to borrowing and lending money. Also included are slave
bills of sale, 16 September 1821 and 24 September 1821;
suggestions for changes in the deed of John Sherwood Thomas to
Farish Carter for land in Louisiana, 24 February 1821; an
agreement between Farish Carter and David Bowen for Bowen to
manage Carter's plantation in Baldwin County on the Oconee River,
4 December 1828; and an agreement between Farish Carter and John
Sherwood Thomas concerning ownership and management of New Hope
Plantation, Louisiana, 1 October 1829.
Folder 64 1813-1816
65 1817-1823
66 1824
67 1825
68 1826
69 1827
70 1828
71 1829
Subseries 2.1.3. 1830-1835
About 200 items.
Bills, receipts, accounts, and legal papers of Farish Carter
and of the firms of Wiley, Baxter, and Carter and Carter,
Grantland, and Williamson. There are many bills for groceries
and other supplies purchased from Thomas Butler, from G.
Champlain & Co., from John Manning, from the Penitentiary, and
from others in Georgia as well as a "Copy of bills of sundry
goods purchased by G. B. Thomas for the use of the New Hope
Plantation, 1828-1833," (20 pp.).
Other papers relate to the business of New Hope Plantation.
In a legal document dated 9 January 1830, John Sherwood Thomas
swore that a certificate of character for a slave was genuine and
that the slave introduced into the parish was the same for which
the certificate was given. In the file for 1833 are found some
bills of New Hope Plantation. In 1835 are legal papers relating
to arbitration of a difference between Carter and John Sherwood
Thomas. There are accounts with Littleton Atkison, who
apparently was acting as Carter's agent in many of his business
interests, including New Hope Plantation.
This subseries also contains materials which relate to
Carter's land dealings in Florida. There is, for example, an
advertisement dated 17 July 1830 for sale of land in Florida by
Carter and Seaton Grantland as surviviors of Carter, Williamson
and Grantland. There is also a tax receipt dated 15 June 1830
for Carter, Grantland, and the estate of Williamson for taxes in
Jackson County, Florida.
Also included in this subseries are accounts with Thomas
Butler of Savannah, with William Gaston, and others for sales of
cotton.
Folders 72-73 1830
74-75 1831
76-77 1832
78 1833
79 1834
80 1835
Subseries 2.1.4. 1836-1842.
About 300 items.
Bills and receipts for supplies and for hire of slaves,
accounts between Carter and his business associates, papers
relating to legal disputes, and other financial and legal papers
of Farish Carter. Notable among these are a bill from Carter to
a boat company dated 15 May 1840 for hire of 11 slaves; an
invoice dated July 1840 of real estate purchased for and on
account of Carter, Boyce, Long, and Huson; bills of the
Penitentiary to Carter for supplies and repair work; and an
agreement between Carter and Shadrick Tootle dated 1 November
1841 for Tootle to live on and be overseer at the house, near
Coosawattee, known as Martin's Stand.
Folder 81 1836
82-83 1837
84 1838
85 1839
86-87 1840
88 1841
89-90 1842
Subseries 2.1.5. 1843-1859
About 500 items.
Bills, receipts, accounts, and legal papers of Farish Carter,
of his business associates, and of companies in which Carter had
an interest.
From 1843 to 1857, there are many papers relating to the
administration by Carter and M. I. Kenan of the estate of George
W. Murray. These include bills and receipts of the estate and
later papers reflecting a legal controversy over the estate.
During this period, Carter had several business interests in
Columbus, Georgia. Although there is considerable correspondence
in Series 1 about the Coweta Falls Manufacturing Company, there
are only a few papers here of that company. The most notable of
these is a copy dated 5 March 1845 of the "Rules and Regulations
to be observed by all persons in the employment of the Coweta
Falls Manufacturing Company."
There are more papers here of the Water Lot company and the
Variety Works in Columbus. There are legal papers, receipts, and
accounts showing sales of the Water Lots. There is also an
account for 1847 of the Water Lot Company with each of it
members--Carter, J. H. Howard, John B. Baird, and Walter Terry
Colquitt. There is a division of Variety Works and Alabama lands
among Baird, Carter, Colquitt, Spencer, and Brooks, dated 1854.
A few papers document Carter's business with railroads in
Georgia. Papers of 5 August and 15 August 1846 show freight
rates on the Central and Macon and Western Railroads. A paper of
2 Nov. 1850 gives Carter's terms for hiring slaves to work on the
Milledgeville and Gordon Rail Road. Also included is a
certificate dated 12 July 1854 of Carter's railroad bonds in the
Agency Marine Bank.
The financial and legal papers for these years clearly
document the variety of Carter's business interests: in an
agreement of 1 November 1843, Carter contracted with William
Moran to superintend the ferry across the Oconee River adjoining
Milledgeville; J. A. Whiteside gave Carter a receipt in 1845 for
$1,000 to be used to purchase and run a steam boat on the
Tennessee River above Muscle Shoals; and Carter agreed on 29
December 1847 to allow the firm of Tate, Atkison, and Roberts to
quarry marble on his land in Gilmer County in return for a share
of the profit.
A few legal papers relating to Carter's Florida suits appear
here. Among these are interrogatories and responses in the cases
of Carter vs. A. T. Bennett (1845) and A. T. Bennett vs. Carter
(1847). Papers relating to Carter's suit against the estate of
Brockenbrough, also in Florida, appear in 1851.
Folders 91-92 1843
93 1844
94-95 1845
96 1846
97-98 1847
99 1848
100 1849
100a 1850
101 1851
102 1852
103-104 1853
105 1854
106 1855
107 1856
108 1857
109 1858-1859
Subseries 2.1.6. 1861-1868.
About 10 items.
A few bills and receipts of Mrs. Eliza Carter, James Carter,
and Samuel Carter.
Folder 110
Subseries 2.1.7. Undated Financial and Legal Papers.
About 80 items.
Undated bills, receipts, accounts, legal papers, maps of
Farish Carter and Mrs. Farish Carter.
Items which are clearly legal papers are filed together in
folder 113. These include papers related to the Murray estate
and a fragment of Farish Carter's will.
Three undated maps are filed in folder 114: a map of the
Ocilla Country showing township and range numbers and with lots
marked and numbered, a map of land between the Appalacheecola
[sic] River on the east and the Choctahachee River on the west
showing as far north as Marianna and as far south as Cape St.
Blass with townships and ranges numbered, and a map of the west
bank of the Oconee River from head of Carter's Islands to
Barrow's Ferry.
Folders 111-112 Undated financial papers
113 Undated legal papers
114 Undated maps
Subseries 2.2. Account Books
2 items.
Folder 115. Account book, 1839-1841, 34 pages.
Intermittent accounts of Carter, Boyce, and Huson with S.
H. Long. Also a copy of a deed of Jacob Early to Farish
Carter and Seaton Grantland.
Folder 116. Account book, 1860-1865, 64 pages. Lists of
expenditures, mostly for groceries but also other
expenses, and receipts. Also included are recipes and
remedies.
Series 3. Picture
1 item.
P-2230/1. Picture of a two-story, frame house with three
unidentifiable people in front of it.