William McCarter and Ellen Hargis
of Wilson County, Kansas

William McCarter was born on April 24, 1842 at Elk Creek, Grayson County, Virginia – the fifth of Thurza and Philander's ten children. While the lives of his siblings have been fairly well researched, William remained somewhat of a mystery primarily because, until 2011, the family had been unable to locate any of his living descendants. While searching for descendants this is the research we gathered on William and his family.

William worked on his parent's farm on Elk Creek until March 20, 1862, when he enlisted in Company F, 4th Virginia, also known as the "Grayson Dare Devils." His Civil War enlistment records describe him as 5 '6" with hazel eyes, dark hair, and a sallow complexion. He was wounded at Kearneysville on September 16, 1862 and promoted to a full Corporal on May 15, 1863. He was captured at Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864 and imprisoned in Elmira, New York until June 19, 1865. He left Virginia sometime after the war.

In 1870, at age 28, he appeared in the census of Clifton Twp, Wilson County, Kansas which had a population of 918. He was listed as a farmer with $580 in personal property, but no land. He was married to 18-year-old Ellen E. Hargis who was born in Missouri. They had no children yet, but living in their household was 19-year-old Ballard Hale, who was listed as a black "servant." It may be that Ballard was William's former slave who had stayed on as a paid laborer. This was the case with Phanny, the slave of William's parents who appeared in their household in 1870, also as their servant.

Living next to William was "F. McCarter," a farmer with $320 in personal property, who was also born in Virginia. This was probably William's brother H. F. "Frank" McCarter who was said to have spent some time in Kansas after the Civil War.

William and H.F. McCarter had likely come to Wilson County in '69 or '70 during the illegal land grab on the Osage Reserve. The Osage and Sioux had done their best to run off squatters in the 50s and 60s, but were completely overwhelmed by the number of settlers who arrived in 1870. At this time, much of Kansas was still the "wild west" complete with horse thieves, gunslingers, and general lawlessness. With the influx of settlers, towns were literally springing up overnight.

One month after the 1870 census, Clifton Twp. was divided in half, and William became a resident of newly established Colfax Twp. That year the township was taken by storm by homesteaders, with thirty arriving in a single day in the month of May.

William and Ellen remained in Colfax Twp. for many years. The 1880 census lists them with their first three children George, Beauford, and Nettie.

William and Ellen's Children	Born in Colfax Twp. Wilson Co., Kansas	Married	Died
George L. McCarter	Sep 1872	Jessie M. Morse before 1900	Orange Co., California 1924
Beauford Centinel McCarter	Jun 1876	Never married	Orange Co., California Feb 1948
Nettie A. McCarter	Sep 1879	Judson McCoy 22 December 1897	San Bernadino Co., California Jan 1961
Cora B. McCarter	Jun 1882	Hezekiah Row about 1903	Nebraska or Kansas between 1914-20
James William McCarter	Oct 1885	Never married	Orange Co., California 1914 or 1915
Lula W. McCarter	Mar 1888	Divorced

In 1897 William applied for his daughter Nettie's marriage license. On December 22 she was married to Judson McCoy who was also a resident of Ridge in Colfax Twp.

Ellen died sometime in her mid-forties. She was enumerated in the 1895 Kansas state census, but the 1900 federal census lists William as a widower in the household of his brother Levi Hickman McCarter back in Sugar Grove, Virginia. It appears, from the way the census records were completed, that William was just visiting, rather than living with Levi.

Meanwhile in Colfax Twp, the 1900 census lists Beauford as the head of household, with the three youngest children, Cora (17), J.W. (14) and Lula (12). The other children, Nettie and George, were living just to the north in Perry Twp., Woodson County.

Nettie and Jud McCoy had a one-year-old son, Alvin "Cecil." George had married Jessie M. Morse and they had a newborn son, not yet named. The children listed William's birth place variously as Georgia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, which is odd considering that William was back home in Virginia visiting his family at the time.

About 1903 Cora married Hezekiah Row and they had a son, James Orville, born 1909 in Chanute, Kansas, and a daughter, Wilda, born 1912 in Malcolm, Nebraska.

Many years later, in a letter to her cousin, Nettie wrote that "we left Kansas in 1901 and went to Rocky Ford, Colorado." The move must have included her father and brother, J.W., who appear in the 1910 census for Rocky Ford, Otero County, Colorado.

Many Kansans migrated to Otero County after three large canals brought farming to the desert region in 1890. In 1895 Rocky Ford was said to have two good hotels, many mercantile houses and small manufactories, one weekly newspaper, extensive lumber yards, a bank, a post office, two churches, an excellent public school, and a good water system. The county quickly became one of the largest fruit-growing regions in the state and is still well-known for its watermelons.

George may have moved with the family to Colorado, but in the 1910 census he was listed as a widower and inmate of the Hospital for the Insane in Medical Lake, Spokane, Washington. What became of his son who was a newborn in the 1900 census is not known.

In 1911 William moved again to Orange County, California possibly to be near his brother, James, who had been living in the area for some time. Nettie's family lived in Huntington Beach where Jud worked for Shell Oil.

William settled on a farm near Wintersburg. He died there on February 11, 1914, at the age of 71 and was buried in the Huntington Beach Cemetery.

At the time of William's death, the following appeared in the Huntington Beach News.

William's probate records described his property as 10 acres near the town of Wintersburg valued at $5,000 subject to a $1,500 mortgage.

At the time the will was probated, both J.W. and Nettie were living in Huntington Beach, California. George had just moved from Denison, Texas to Oklahoma (possibly to the town of Sentinel); Beauford was in Wichita, Kansas; Cora was in Franklin, Nebraska; and Lula was in San Francisco, California.

Nettie was named executor of the estate. J.W. received half and the other half was divided equally between George, Beauford, Nettie, Cora, and Lula.

J.W., who was just 28, died sometime between March 20, 1914 and April 27, 1915 while the will was still in probate, so Nettie then became the executor of his estate.

Cora died in her early thirties, sometime between 1914 and 1920. Her son James Orville Row married Lilly Mae Hermstein in 1937 in Chanute, Kansas. According to his 1998 obituary, James worked as an electronic technician for RCA for many years and helped build components for the Apollo space capsule. He and Lilly had one son, James Orville Row, Jr. who may have two sons.

Cora's daughter, Wilda, married Holbert Lige Smith in 1929 in Fredonia, Kansas. She had one son, Holbert Basil Smith who married Bonnie Lou Davis. Holbert and Bonnie had one son Robert G. Smith.

In 1924 George died at the age of 51 and was buried next to his father and brother in the Huntington Beach Cemetery.

Beauford also died in Orange County in 1948 at the age of 71. It appears that he never married.

Census records show that Lula may have been briefly married, but had no children. The last known record of her lists her as a householder in a Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1953.

In 1924 Nettie and Jud moved to Ventura, California and were still living there in 1934 when she wrote to her cousin, Will. At that time, her son Cecil McCoy was living with his wife, Reba (Sanders) and son Robert in the mountains of San Bernadino County. Her son Ralph was working in Long Beach. He died in 1941 at the age of 34.

In June of 2011, we were delighted to hear from a son of Robert McCoy that his parents are living in Fairfax, Virginia.

Other possible living descendants of William and Ellen McCarter are James Orville Row, Jr. and Robert G. Smith and their families. We welcome contact from these cousins too.

Thanks to Diana Guthrie and Amy K. Davis who generously volunteered their time in helping research William's family.

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