December 17

 Ned Jonas Carter married Nancy Jane Evans 17 December 1865

PHOTO: Ned Jonas Carter, Nancy Jane Evans Carter (she was called Jane)

The Carter family is related to the Arnold branch of our family tree by the marriage of Adaline Carter (my great-grandmother) to John Henry Arnold (he was called Henry)

PHOTO L-R: 'Aunt Peggy' Bullard (raised John Henry Arnold, her nephew), George, Adaline holding Etta, Annie (my great-grandmother), John (in front of Annie), Henry holding Marlie.

Annie Arnold Hicks wrote some memories about her grandparents Ned and Jane Carter --

My Grandmother’s name was Jane Evans before marriage. She married a man by the name of Evans.  They had two children, Elizabeth and Joe.  (Grandma was born about 1846.)  After a few years her first husband died and she soon married a man by the name of Carter and he soon died.  No children were born to them.  Then she married again, a man by the name of Ned Jonas Carter.  This man had three children, Margaret, Mary, and Wesley* so that made them five children to start with.  Then they had several children.  I will try to call their names.  Sarah, Parlie, Adaline (my mother), John, Beckie, Tilda, George and Ellen.  

*Note: Before Ned married Jane, he was married to Melinda Emaline Clingins and they had six children - Martha, Wesley, Mary, Margaret, and twin girls who died at birth. The story goes that Martha married a man her parents didn't approve of and she left home and was never heard from again.

My Grandma lived to be about 50 years old. She died when I was about 3 years old.  I can barely remember when she died in 1896.  She had T.B., but died from taking an overdose of calomel and getting salivated.  You see, when you take calomel and if you eat anything salty or hot coffee soon after taking it, it salivates you.  It makes your mouth real sore and even makes your teeth fall out when it gets real bad, and if you don’t get it stopped it goes to the stomach and eats your stomach up and kills. People used to take calomel for malaria.  We don’t have malaria in the north, but it used to be real bad in the warm climates before the land was cleared up much.,, Grandpa married again after Grandma died but didn’t live with her long.  He left her and came to our house to live when I was about five or six years old.  He died in 1900 with cancer of the stomach at about the age of 60 years or maybe a little older.  

Grandpa was of Irish descent. I don’t know Grandma’s descent.  Grandpa was a heavy-set man with large muscles - a very strong man.  He was a blacksmith by trade.  He used to take bitter apple for medicine.  I don’t see any of it now.  It looked just like dried apples in little slices but it is as bitter as it can be.  He gave me a bite of it one time and it tasted so bad I almost never did get the taste out of my mouth and I never did like him very well.  It is possible that he felt so bad that he didn’t want to make friends with us kids.  I remember when he came to our house to live, his stomach was swelled real big, but he was still walking around and I don’t remember how long he lived after he couldn’t be up.  It seems like quite a while, a year maybe.  I remember that he would throw up curded blood, I suppose.  It looked like coffee grounds.  But they had the best doctor that could be had in those days to doctor him, but he would have done as well without a doctor as with one, more than maybe a few shots to kill the pain of cancer in its last stages.  Ma had to bury everything that he passed.  The doctor said just to make sure. We didn’t have toilets then to flush it through.  Neither did we have hospitals then like we have now, so the only thing to do was just keep him at home and do the best we could.  Then we had no undertakers.  The neighbor men made a casket out of lumber and covered it with black cloth, lined inside with white cloth.  And they always had to be buried the next day after death.  He was buried in the old Pine Grove cemetery near Floral, Arkansas. 

Here are a couple of anecdotes about Ned Jonas Carter written by a Carter cousin Glynda:

  At this place in my story I will write a little about Ned J. Carter.  Most of this information given to me by John J. Rhoades and calling Ned Grandpap as that is what the Rhoades family called him.   Grandpap was of average height or a little less.  He was red-headed, left handed and as independent as a hog on ice.  The color of his eyes was probably grey or green.  The family was Scotch, Irish and Pennsylvania Black Dutch.  Most of Grandpap’s descendants are religious people making it seem that he had strong religious beliefs.  He was a republican in politics and a blacksmith by trade, and a good one too.  People would come from far away to have him do their blacksmithing. ?He seemed to have itchy feet.  He never stayed in one place very long.  He might not move far, but move he would. ?Grandpap was about as wide as he was tall and in his older age his hair turned white and he also had a white beard.  One of the Dunn boys remembered this story about him.  He went to a community party and three boys decided to have some fun at Grandpap’s expense.  After the fun was over, Grandpap’s white hair was red with blood but he was still on his feet.  They had to carry the three boys out.  That just shows they didn’t have much sense.  A smart man doesn’t start a fight with a blacksmith. 

  Another story was that one day a man brought Grandpap some work.  He was one that wanted to tell him how to do it.  Apparently, Grandpap had a short fuse, as you would expect in a red-head, because he got tired of that fella real quick.  Since the guy was telling him where to hit the metal with the hammer, he had him show him just exactly where to hit it next.  The man had to practically put his finger on the metal to show him where to hit it and Grandpap took a swing with his hammer.  He was quick to move his hand and himself and left the work to Grandpap.