William Thomas 'Will Tom' Carpenter (November 16, 1854, in
Johnson County, Missouri – March 30, 1933), the youngest son of James and Cynthia (Johnson) Carpenter, was a legendary
cowman who authored a book about his experiences.
[Will Tom Carpenter: ''Lucky 7, A Cowman's Autobiography'', ed. by Elton Miles, University of Texas Press, Austin, Tex., 1957, 119 pp.]
Ancestry
He was descended from a noteworthy Swiss-American family whose surname was Zimmermann, anglicized to Carpenter in anglophone North America. The emigrant ancestor, Will Tom's great-great-grandfather, George Carpenter, enlisted in the First Virginia Regiment at the outbreak of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
and died in service of wounds received in the
Battle of Brandywine
The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American Continental Army of General George Washington and the British Army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777, as part of the Ame ...
. His great-grandfather Adam Carpenter was one of three brothers who established
Carpenter's Station, Kentucky, in 1780.
Earlier life
When he was an infant, his family, who were Southern sympathizers, moved to
Bourbon County, Kansas
Bourbon County (county code BB) is a county located in Southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 14,360. Its county seat and most populous city is Fort Scott.
History
Early history
For many millennia, the Great Pla ...
, then migrated in a wagon train up the
Platte River to settle near
Pike's Peak,
El Paso County, Colorado
El Paso County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. The 2020 Census recorded its population as 730,395. The Census Bureau's 2020 result indicates it is the most populous county in Colorado, surpassing the City and County of De ...
. From 1862 to 1900, as cowhand and later as trail boss, he traveled all the famed cattle trails of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.
[
]
Later life
He married late in 1875 or early in 1876 in Missouri to Mattie Christenson, who was born August 28, 1859, at Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
; she was 16 years old.[''The Sanderson'' exas''Times'', issue of September 4, 1936.] After his retirement from "cowboying," they settled on their ranch west of the Pecos in Terrell County, Texas. He died on March 30, 1933, in the Kerr Hotel in Sanderson, Texas, where he had gone for medical treatment.[
Mattie (Christensen) Carpenter survived her husband by three years and inherited his estate. She left no will and no relative could be found after her death on September 1, 1936, so the state of Texas became her heir.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, William Thomas
1854 births
1933 deaths
People from Johnson County, Missouri
People from Terrell County, Texas
20th-century American writers