Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/152

 CARSON.

CARTER.

in January they published the first number of the Signal, a sixteen-page weekly paper. In 1882 Our Union was merged into it. The ijublishing association was the first stock company composed entirely of women. In 1885 she began to plan the woman's temperance temple at Chicago, the national headquarters of the W. C. T. U., which was completed in 1894 at a cost of $1,200,000. Mrs. Carse was president and founder of the woman's dormitory association of the World's Cv)lumbian exposition, established for the purpose of erecting dormitories for working women who aitjuded the exposition. She aided in establisli- i:i; the Chicago foundling's aid society, and in building and maintaining the home. She was president of the society from its foundation.

CARSON, Christopher, 'Kit Carson," soldier, ■was born in Madison county, Ky., Dec. 24, 1809. In early childhood he was taken to Missouri by his parents who settled in Howard county, then an almo.st unbroken wilderness. During his child- hood he hved out of doors, becoming an expert hunter and fisherman, but acquiring no knowl- edge of books. In 1824 he was apprenticed to a saddler, but after serving two years he joined an exploring expedition. The following eight years he spent in hunting and trapping, meanwhile acquiring a knowledge of French, Spanish, and about ten Indian dialects. The depreciation in the value of furs led him to abandon the occupa- ti jn of trapper, and from 1832 to 1840 he was en- gaged as hunter for Fort Bent, a trading post belonging to American merchants. While thus employed he was married to a beautiful Indian girl, who died shortly after the birth of a daugli- ter. In 1842, when the child was six or seven years old, her father placed her in a school at St. Louis, Mo., and while returning from this visit he met Lieut. John C. Fremont, who had been commissioned by the government to explore the country between the frontiers of Missouri and the Rocky mountains. Carson was engaged as guide to the expedition, and proved invaluable on account of his knowledge of the territory and his acquaintance with the Indians. He also accom- panied Fremont on his second expedition to the west, the party reaching Fort Lawson, on the Sacramento river, while the Mexican war was in progress. On two occasions during the war, Car- son was directed to carry despatches to Washing- ton. The first journey, a distance of four thou- sand miles, he accomplished in three months, and while he was in Washington, President Polk ap- pointed him lieutenant in the U. S. rifle corps. On liis second expedition he learned that the senate had refused to ratify his appointment. About 1853 he was appointed Indian agent by the U. S. government, an office for which he was peculiarly adapted and in which he rendered great sarvice

to the country. For his gallant and eiTicient ser- vices ia tue Union army during the civil war lie was made brevet brigadier-general of volunteers in ISo.j. From the close of the war to his death lie was enqiloyed as;in Indian agent. See Life of Kit Carson (1869). by Charles Burdett. He died;it Fort Lyon. Col.. May 23. 1868.

CARTER, Franklin, educator, was born at Wateruury, Conn., Sept. 30, 1837; son of Preserve Wood and Ruth Wells (Holmes) Carter. He was fitted for college at Phillips academy, Andover, Mass., and entered Yale in 1855. In 1857, in con- sequence of ill-health, he left college and after three years of travel and study resumed college work at Williams in 1860 and was graduated in 1862. He went abroad early in 1863 and in 1865 began i his duties as pro- fessor of Latin and h French in Williams ,^ college, to which jjosition he was elec- ted in 1863. In 1872 "C^ he was elected pro- ^' fessor of the Ger- man language and literature in Yale college and spent another year in stvidy in Berlin, preparatory to beginning the duties of this position. In 1881 he was elected president of Williams col- lege, giving most of his time to executive work but teaching the doctrines of natural religion one term in senior year. He received the degree^ of LL.D. from Union college in 1881. He was elected a trustee of the Andover theological sem- inary and of the Clark school for the deaf at Northampton, and became president of the latter in 1896. He was the first president of the Modern language association of America, and al.so of the Berk.shire Congregational club. He was made president of the Massachusetts home mis- sionary society, a member of the colonial society of Massachusetts and of the American oriental society, and a corporate member of the American board of commissioners for foreign miissions. He was elected a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences. In 1896 he was the presidential elector of the first district of Massacliusetts. He resigned as president of Williams college in 1901. but continued to serve as acting president until 1902. He received the degree LL.D. from Yale in 1901. He published an edition of Goethe's Iphigenie (1877) and Life of Mark Hopkins (1892) and contributed to magazines and journals.

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