Bio: Carpenter, Horace (1834 - 1906)

Contact: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Carpenter, Van Hoesen

----Source: History of Eau Claire County Wisconsin (1914) pages 668-669

Horace Carpenter, deceased, a veteran of the Civil War and a highly respected man of Eau Claire, was born in Holland, Vermont, July 8, 1834, and was descended from New England ancestors who came from England in the ship Bevis in 1638, and settled at Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Early in life he went to Plattsburg, New York, where he lived until he reached the age of twenty-two, then came to Wisconsin, and was one of the pioneers of Eau Claire, having settled here in 1856. Soon after his arrival in the village, he engaged in the services of the Northwestern Lumber Company, whose plant was then located at Porter's Mills. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted as a private and was assigned to Company G, First Minnesota heavy artillery, and served two years. At the expiration of his service, he returned to Eau Claire and for one year was engaged in farming on Truax prairie. He then moved into the city and opened a grocery store, a business he successfully carried on for twenty-five years. He was a man of irreproachable habits and pure character, as well as honorable and ambitious, and enjoyed the friendship of all with whom he came in contact. He was a member of Eau Claire Lodge. No. 112, A. F. & A. M., and of Eagle Post No. 52 Grand Army of the Republic. His death occurred on June 2, 1906, and was mourned by a large circle of friends.

Mr. Carpenter married Miss Marietta Van Hoesen, of Durand, Wis., but formerly of Great Bend, Jefferson county, New York, and they had four children. Cora E., who is now and has been for a number of years, supervisor of drawing in the public schools of Eau Claire; William J., manager of the Cutter Shoe Factory; Emma, who died at the age of twenty, and one child who died in infancy.

Mrs. Carpenter and family are prominent in social affairs of the city, and all are affiliated with the Lake St. Methodist Episcopal church.