Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together A Brief History of Samuel Carter My father, Samuel Carter, was bom at Warding- ton, Oxfordshire, England, on September 1, 1836, a son of John Carter and Mary Tims Carter. At the age of twenty-two, he met Ellen Masser at Tole-end Tifton, Staffordshire, England. He converted and baptized her into the Latter Day Saints Church, and later they were married. In 1860 they set sail from England for the United States on a sailing vessel. Their voyage was very rough. Sometimes the wind would blow and turn their vessel in the opposite direction. After being tossed about for eight weeks, they landed safely. They came across the plains with ox teams. Their first child, Eleanor, was bom in a wagon box at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on August 17,1860. The company laid over one day for the event. Then journeyed westward to Kaysville, Davis County. Here they settled for a few years and were blessed with a son and daughter, Samuel John and Sara Jane. While still in Davis County, Samuel married a second wife, Sarah Davis Roberts. In the latter part of 1865, they left Davis County and moved to Round Valley, Morgan County. The two families lived together in a log house for a short time. Then his first wife and family moved into a brick house. Here they were blessed with the following children: Hannah Hindley, Harriet, Ann, Hyrum, James, and Heber. His second family remained living in the log house. Samuel taught school, farmed, and worked on the railroad to support his families. In the year 1873, he moved his first family to Porterville, Morgan County. Here they built a log cabin 14x16 feet. The walls were plastered with clay and it had a dirt roof. When it would rain, the roof would leak. They would set pans around to catch the water. Their cupboard, table, and benches were made out of rough timber. They had one bed. The children slept on straw ticks on the floor. During the day they would pile the ticks on the bed. A year after his first family had moved to Porterville, Samuel built and furnished a cabin just like the first one. Then his second family moved to Porterville. The cabins were about ten feet apart. He added more rooms as the children grew older. Here Daniel, Hattie and Thomas were born to his first wife, Ellen, making eleven children in all. Sarah, his second wife, had twelve children and a daughter by a previous marriage. He was the bishop of the West Porterville Ward for twenty years, until the east and west wards were joined in August 1896. They raised a small bunch of sheep. They would shear and card the wool, then spin it into yarn. Then they would knit stockings for the families. The children had one pair of shoes a year. The boys wore trousers that would button onto a waist. The girls had blue denim dresses. They were all hand made. The children would walk two miles night and morning to school. One teacher taught all of the children. They would hold school four months in the winter, so the boys could help with the farming in the spring and summer. At Christmas time the children would hang up their stockings, all that would be in them was three or four walnuts and a stick of gum, but there were no toys. As they got older, they would get a small toy of some kind such as a bunch of crayons, but they were happy and satisfied with what they received. As the boys grew older, Samuel would give them two bushels of wheat they had to divide among four of them. Wheat was sixty cents a bushel. The boys would take the wheat to Morgan, get the money and buy a nickle's worth of candy, peanuts, mixed candy and some other kind. They would go to the dance that night and treat all the girls. People would say, "Those Carter boys are sure well off." As there wasn't any farming machinery in those days, the plowing was done with a twelve inch hand plow and a team. They had to sow the grain by hand, then harrow it into the ground with a five foot harrow which was made out of small poles and railroad spikes. When the grain was ripened, it was cut with a cradle. Then the children would rake it up in bunches and tie it together with bands made of straw. The hay had to be cut with a scythe. The children would follow and spread the hay out so it would dry. When it was dry, they would gather it up and put it in small piles, and as hay was scarce, they would climb the steep mountains and cut the grass and tie it in bundles and roll it down the hill to the road where it