Page 649
WILLIAM CARPENTER was born July 30, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He immigrated to Licking county, Ohio, in his young manhood; and in the fall of 1819 united in marriage there with Margaret Pence. In the autumn of 1820 they moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, and settled about six miles out from Springfield on the Peoria road, where Mr. Carpenter opened up a small farm, surrounded by the haunts of the wild beasts and the wigwams of the Indians, who encamped several winters near their cabin on the bluffs of the Sangamon river, below where the city water-works are now located. Some years after Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter located in their wild western home, a ferry was established across the Sangamon, a mile from their cabin, and a short distance below where Carpenter's bridge is now situated. Mr. Carpenter eventually became the owner of the lands on both sides of the river, and also of the ferry, and conducted it till the bridge was built in 1844. When they first settled there the nearest post office was at Edwardsville, from whence Mr. Carpenter hauled corn to feed his team the first winter, after picking it on shares. In March, 1828, Mr. Carpenter removed his family to Springfield, and occupied one of the few log cabins in the place, which stood on the site of the present Revere House. After a change or two of location he erected a frame house on the corner of Second and Jefferson streets. Here he opened a mercantile business where he continued in the mercantile business a number of years. In 1843, Mr. Carpenter, in company with Adolphus Wood, a brother-in-law, erected a flouring and saw-mill on the Sangamon river, at Carpenter's bridge, which was known as the Rock-dam Mills, from the material used in construction. This old mill still stands on section one, of Springfield township, and is operated a portion of the year. In the later years of his life Mr. Carpenter dealt extensively in real estate, investing the proceeds of the mill and business in lands, of which he owned a large quantity at his death, on August 30, 1859. Mr. Carpenter served the people many years in an official capacity, was elected Justice of the Peace in Ohio in May, 1820; was appointed to the same office in Sangamon county, Illinois, in July, 1822, and filled by successive appointments and elections about seventeen years in all. He served as Representative in the Illinois Legislature in 1834 and 1835. Was appointed Postmaster of Springfield October 4, 1836, and resigned the office at the close of three years of service. He acted as Mayor of the city in 1846, during the absence of Mayor J. C. Conkling. Her served in the Black Hawk war, and assisted in burying the dead after Stillman's defeat. May 15, 1830, he was made Quartermaster of the Twentieth Illinois Militia, and was Paymaster of the Fourth Illinois Mounted Volunteers on April 30, 1832.
Mrs. Carpenter was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, February 5, 1803; is one of a family of four sons and three daughters of Peter Pence and Catharine Godfrey, who moved to Licking county, Ohio, in her early childhood. Her paternal grandfather fought in the war of the Revolution, and her maternal grandsire was killed by Indians on the banks of the Ohio river. In those early pioneer times in Sangamon county, Mrs. Carpenter and her neighbors used to raise small patches of cotton, which they picked, and mixing it with wool, manufacted it into fabrics for the family clothing. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter were the parents of eleven children, eight of whom survive. John, George, Sarah, Jane and Mary Ellen reside with their mother at the homestead, on the corner of Seventh and Carpenter streets. George, the youngest son, was born in March, 1835; read law with Stuart & Edwards, in Springfield, beginning in 1858, for nearly three years, when failing eyesight compelled him
to abandon the profession and he has since devoted his attention chiefly to the interest of the family estate. He is now serving his second term in the Board of Supervisors from the city.