My Genealogy Hound

ELEAZER W. CARPENTER was born in New Hampshire, June 23, 1827. His parents, Willard and Betsey (Wason) Carpenter, were natives of New Hampshire, the former having been born in 1789. They were married in 1812 and had two children — Miranda, born in 1820, and Eleazer W., born in 1827; the former died in 1863. The father died in New York in 1841, and the mother died in Wisconsin in 1864. Eleazer W. Carpenter was married November 19, 1854, to Miss Emily M., daughter of John and Hulda (George) Plumer. She was born in New Hampshire, June 25, 1830. Her father was born in 1808, and was the son of Nathaniel Plumer, who was born May 29, 1764. The family of E. W. Carpenter consists of seven children, namely — John W., born May 15, 1856; Stephen, born November 16, 1858; Hulda, born March 7, 1861; Cyril, born September 4, 1863; Marion, born March 31, 1866; Miranda, born October 14, 1868, and Lydia, born May 31, 1871. Mr. Carpenter went with his parents from their native state, in 1840, to New York, where, at the age of sixteen, he hired out by the month to work on a farm. His next move was to Wisconsin in 1854, where he was married and settled down to farming. He enlisted in September, 1864, in the First regiment, Minnesota heavy artillery. His regiment was stationed at Chattanooga, Tenn., and performed garrison duty during most of the service. He was mustered out June 17, 1865. In the fall of 1872 he started West to prospect for his future home. He arrived at Gibbon, Buffalo county, Nebr., after a long and wearisome journey made with an ox team. He remained here until the following spring; in the meantime, however, he busied himself looking for a location. He was especially pleased with the land in the Cedar Creek valley, and he finally took up a homestead there. He built a frame house, sod being the material mostly employed at this early date. There was scarcely any settlement in this section at that time, and wild game was plenty, especially deer and antelope. There were hundreds of wild-cats and beaver along the creek, and hunting and trapping constituted the chief occupation of several of the early settlers. Mr. Carpenter had barely succeeded in getting his family comfortably housed, when one of the severest storms in the history of the country began raging. It was a blizzard of the most pronounced type and lasted for three days, during which snow fell and drifted to a great depth. Hundreds of cattle and other stock, without shelter, perished. In a sod house near Mr. Carpenter’s dwelling, lived a lady by the name of Mrs. Davis. During the awful storm a part of the roof of the house fell in, and the poor woman, whose husband was away at the time, became alarmed and started out in the blinding storm in the hope, it is supposed, of reaching the home of Mr. Carpenter. Soon after the storm ceased it was ascertained that Mrs. Davis was missing; a diligent search was at once instituted, which soon resulted in the recovery of her remains, frozen stiff on the prairie. Incidents of this kind are not uncommon among the frontiersmen. Mr. Carpenter was also among the early pioneers who suffered from the grasshopper raid. He describes them as appearing on the horizon like numerous black clouds, and as striking against his house like descending hail.

The first school district in the township was organized in 1874, and the first term of school was taught by Mrs. Carpenter in one of the rooms of her own house. Mr. Carpenter has served as justice of the peace of his township for eleven years and has been elected supervisor, the most important office in the town. He has also been postmaster of Major’s post office since February, 1879. He is republican in politics and is one of the recognized party representatives in Buffalo county.