Stone two-story house with shuttered windows and a wraparound porch; four people—two men, a boy, and a woman—stand at a wooden fence in front.
This photo of the 1877 house was taken circa 1900 from the east. James Gilbert Leroy Carter is on the left. His wife, Mary Means Cooley Carter, is on the right.
Large two-story house with prominent white columns on a wraparound porch, stone exterior, and a wrought-iron fence in the front yard.
The same house as at left, as it looked in 2007. The two-level covered porch has replaced a smaller two-level porch that was on the original house. The sun room on the lower level (at right) is also an addition. – Karen Oheim collection

From the 3rd floor
of the Webb City Public Library

Old News

Bushwackers burned James Carter’s first house, leading to the 1877 version

Webb City Area Genealogical Society

James Gilbreth Leroy Carter owned quite a bit of land in Jasper County. The town of Carterville was named after him.

He was a Union sympathizer and tried to live in peace during the Civil War. He was taken prisoner and spent some time during the war in Little Rock, Ark. Because of the threat presented by the bushwackers, he loaded up his family and a few possessions and moved them to Ft. Scott, Kan. They had wrapped the family bible in buckskin and buried it to keep the bushwackers from burning it. When they retumed from Ft. Scott, they found their house had been burned.

In 1877, Carter built the house that still stands today.

The Carter Estate is located northeast of Carterville on Old Route 66. The house, with 12-inch-thick walls, was built of native stone quarried from the limestone cliffs along Center Creek, which is located behind the house.

The house remained in the Carter family for three generations and then was sold outside the family.

In 2006, it was purchased by a Carter family descendant to be restored.

Group portrait of a Victorian-era family: elderly man with a cane seated center, others in formal dress gathered around him (standing and seated).

The Carter Family

(SEATED) Harriett Athalene (Carter) McAdoo, James Gilbreth Leroy Carter, Mary Means (Cooley) Carter, Adora Florence (Carter) Foster.

(STANDING) Nancy Corine (Carter) Bull, Thomas Alfred Carter, Marion Columbus Carter, James Walter Carter, Julina Isabelle (Carter) Ferguson.

Mr. Carter was born April 22, 1826, in Ohio and died Nov. 8, 1914. Mrs. Carter was born Nov. 16, 1827, in lndiana and died April 8, 1902. Mrs Carter was the daughter of Samuel M. Cooley, the first judge of Jasper County.

The Carters are buried in Carter Laxton Cemetery, just north of Hawthorne Road and Carterville.

Webb City Area Genealogical Society

WCAGS members staff the Genealogy Room on the third floor of the Webb City Public Library. Current hours are noon to 4 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Meetings are held at 6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month in the Genealogy Room.

Everything you want to know about Jasper County Missouri Schools is available at a site compiled by Webb City Area Genealogical Society member Kathy Sidenstricker.

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