Dear Jenny,
I'm not sure what a genuine Carpenter is, either. But my great-great
grandfather, Amos Carpenter, born about 1787in Rensselaer Co., New York,
left Granville, Massachusetts in 1805 with a group of that town whose
purpose was to settle a brandnew Granville in Ohio. I have been unable to
trace his parentage, but I have learned lots about him once he arrived in
Ohio. This is one one of the more interesting stories:
It was very interesting to discover that great-great-grandfather Amos
Carpenter was a part of the anti-slavery movement, and his farm may have
been part of the famous ³underground railroad², through which slaves seeking
freedom found safe places to hide out and be transported to freedom. In
April of 1836, the first annual convention of the Ohio Antislavery Society
was held just north of Granville. Our Amos was in attendance as a delegate
from St. Albans. Many famous reformers of the time were there, including
John Rankin, of nearby Ripley. It was a Rankins¹s home that Harriet Beecher
Stowe¹s character Eliza in Uncle Tom¹s Cabin was supposedly directed after
her escape across the turbulent Ohio River. Ripley, on the Ohio River, was
to become the beginning place for one of the several underground railroad
routes which have been traced to Granville and Alexandria, St. Albans. It
was quite possible that black men from the John Rankin home were among those
who were smuggled through St. Albans during the next few years. ( Robert
Price, Editor; ³Alexandria and St. Albans Township, Licking County, Ohio²;
Alexandria Community Council, 1952)
Who knows what part the Carpenter farm played in this movement?
Second wife Johanna died in 1849 and was buried beside first wife
Susannah and little Lemuel. After her death, Amos moved to the big city of
Columbus, where his sons had already settled and were successful merchants.
He died of ³fever² in March of 1858, at the age of 71. He was buried in
Columbus in the same plot where his three sons - Timothy, Truman and our
Stephen - his daughter, Louise, four of Stephen¹s children and several other
family members would later be buried.
His obituary in the March 29,1858 Ohio State Journal reads:
Died in this city, on Sundy morning, March 28, 1858, Mr. Amos Carpenter,
aged 71 years. Mr. Carpenter was born in Rensselaer county, N. Y., from
whence,
at an early age, he migrated to Hamden county, Massachusetts, and in the
year 1805,
made one of the party of resolute adventurers composing the Granville
Colony, who
purchased and removed to the township of Granvile, Licking county, Ohio.
He shortly
after intermarried with a daughter of Lemuel Rose, Esq., a prominent
member of
that colony. Of meek and unpretending manners, Mr. Carpenter was ever
regarded as
an upright citizen and an honest man. Most highly esteemed where
intimately known.
He leaves to his descendants the rich legacy of a good name and unsullied
example.9
(Obituary, March 29, 1858, ³Ohio State Journal²; Columbus, Ohio)