Obit: Carpenter, Charles Wesley (1830 - 1882)

Contact: Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Carpenter

----Sources: Neillsville Times (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) 5 Sept. 1882

Carpenter, Charles Wesley (26 April 1830 - 31 Aug. 1882)

Charles Wesley Carpenter entered into his heavenly rest from his earthly home near Greenwood, Wis., Aug. 31st, 1882. Mr. Carpenter was born near Delfi, Indiana, April 26, 1830. At the age of 9 years his parents moved to Illinois, where they remained one year and then returned to Indiana, near the city of Carhart. Mr. Carpenter lived here with is parents until the spring of 1850, when he was married to his now bereaved wife.

In the spring of 1857 he came for the first time to Clark County, Wis., lived about two years at Greenwood. In the fall of 1859, taught school at Weston Rapids. The next spring he was employed to teach the school at Neillsville, Wis. The following fall he was elected Register of Deeds, which he held for three terms. During this time he had charge of the Clark County Adrocate, the first paper published in the county, and was also postmaster.

Mr. Carpenter’s health began to fail in the fall of 1865, when he again returned to Iowa. Having partially recovered the next spring he returned to Clark County and settled on what is now known as the Miller Farm, one mile north of Greenwood, where he remained until the spring of 1873, when he again embarked in the newspaper business in Barron County, Wisconsin, failing in this enterprise he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he lived one year and then returned to this place where he resided until his death.

Mr. Carpenter has always maintained a good, upright character. Honest in all his transactions, he gained the esteem of the people. He was an earnest Christian and an advocate of moral reform. His last illness (consumption) was long and painful. Notwithstanding the sever ordeal through which he passed, he manifested extraordinary patience, when the hour of dissolution came he rejoiced that deliverance had come, and repeated the following stanza:

"Jesus can make a dying bed feel soft as downy pillows are. While on his breast I lean my head, and breathe my life out sweetly there." The funeral service took place from the M. E. Church, Thursday, and was largely attending. He was a member of the Masonic order and by his request was buried according to the rights of that order.

He leaves a devoted wife and four children who deeply mourn his loss.

C. C. Swartz.