This is all that I can tell. There was a good many of the Carters left in South Carolina. Those who came to live in Carroll County, was the Carter settlement in it. They had to go to Jackson, Tennessee to have their deeds recorded, and there was no church house. The Methodist preacher preached in some of the houses mostly. In Robert Carter's house after they got settled. They had their neighbors meet and cut logs and put up a log meeting house and they held services in that for a while. Then they met again and cut down timber and hued it with a broad-ax and sawed some with a rip saw. I guess you don't know anything about that, so i will tell you something about it. It is a saw similar to a cross cut saw but longer and slimmer. They make a pit, as they call it, they cut large forks and make a scaffold by some saplings so it wouldn't ? hued the large square and they sawed up and down. I have seen men at work with them, so this is the way that they got the lumber to build old Carter's Chapel. They got it framed, weather boarded and floored in this way. For several years they had no way to make a fire. Stoves were unknown in those days. But these old pioneers could stand the cold, for some of the people came for miles on horseback. There were no buggies in those days, Well, they built a shelter too, and had a camp meeting every year. They cut little logs and made tents. They would go and camp for a week at a time and attend what meetings they did have. They had no bell to call to the services at the camp meetings. They had a large bugle to sound, and one, Robert H. Carter was the one that blew it. The Camp Meeting is all done away with but the same old church is still there. Of course, it has been repaired but it is the same old frame. The middle still gave way two or three years ago, and the neighbors met and hued another one and put it in the place. When the church was built, Thomas Carter, grandfather Carter, made the sashes for the windows and the pulpit is still there and in the same place. The windows have been changed. It is between 75 to 80 years since it was built.
The Carter family came
to Tennessee about 1825 and 1830, inclusive, and settled in Carroll County,
mostly near Carter's Chapel. I have some obituaries I will write.
Here died on the 4th of Oct.
1842, Miss Elizabeth Minkipe in the 101st year of her age. In early life
the subject of this notice sought and found the "pearl of great price"
and joined the Methodist Church of which she remained faithful until her
death. She was born in Pennsylvania and emigrated to Tennessee in 1832
and remained until the spark of life went out. Written by A. C. Chrisholm.
Aunt Betty, as she was always called, lived with Thomas Carter after she
came to Tennessee. She was a cousin of his.
Departed this life on the 15th of Oct. 1842, in the full prime of his life and faith, our much esteemed Thomas Carter in the 77th year of his age. The subject of this memoir was born in Virginia on the 15th of March 1766. He embraced religion at the age of 3 and United with the M. E. Church in which he lived the rest of his life. He was a great lover of the Bible, always spoke of the happy change cheerfully and said he was ready to go. In his death the neighborhood lost a good citizen and the church a amiable member, his children an affectionate father and his wife a loving husband. A. C. Chrisholm.
Rutha Ledsinger Carter died in the summer of 1854. I don't know the exact date. Aunt Betty Minskipe was the first old person that was buried in Carter's Chapel and Thomas Carter was the next. (He was grandfather). They were laid side by side. His wife was laid by him. These three old saints have nothing to mark their grave. I think it would be a great honor to the Carter connection to join and get some little tombstones to mark their graves. I am willing to do my part if the rest are. I know when I am gone there will not be anyone who can tell where I lie.