I said in an earlier message that I had a book review on a book about Mr. and
Mrs. A.B. Carpenter compiled by his grandson Lewis N. Carpenter. This A.B.
is Arthur Bronson born June 12, 1827, son of John and Maria Risely Carpenter,
Henderson, Jefferson Co., NY. With this information you can decide wheather
to continue to read the review.
Descendants of Mr. and Mrs. A.B.Carpenter
Early Carpenters In California
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bronson Carpenter and their five children arrived in
California in 1875 by train from Westfield, Tioga Co., Pa. The family and
its possessions were then taken to Porterville by team and farm wagon. A
year later, this Carpenter family purchased 40 acres in what is now the
Poplar district. When a post office was granted for this area in 1880, A.B.
Carpenter became the first postmaster. The name "Poplar" came from the big
poplar trees on the Carpenter place and was suggested by Mrs. Carpenter.
In describing his grandparents' early years in California, Lewis Carpenter
tells of erecting a windmill to pump water for livestock, the oneroom school
heated by a large wood stove, the cooperative efforts by the area's farmers
to construct an irrigation ditch and buying land at $3.50 per acre.
A.B. Carpenter established an apiary of bees, having 200 swarms at one time.
He made his own beehives, received replacement stock for his apiary through
the mail and had a fine library on bees. In those days, he received $3.50
for a five gallon can of honey weighing 65 pounds.
In this booklet written in 1965, Lewis Carpenter notes that the fifth
generation of the Carpenter family started the school term at the old
Rockford school in 1962. "There haven't been very many years since 1876 that
some of the Carpenter offspring haven't been attending this school," the
author writes.
The value of this booklet is that it chronicles more than 125 descendants of
Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Carpenter, giving biographical detail as well as birth,
marriage and death dates. The author born in 1895 at Poplar, can remember
his grandparents and writes with first-hand knowledge of them and their
descendants. He tells, too, of his Reserve service during World War I; of
the activities of his son and two sons-in-law during World War II and of his
youngest son's Air force career, which includes duty in Vietnam.
In the beginning of his booklet, Lewis Carpenter says: "Very few people have
the slighest idea of the labor entailed in compiling an honest genealogical
work...few there are who have cared to do the necessary work that enables
them to claim relationship to the families of the early 1600's." To this we
might add that there are few of us who have even attempted to chronicle the
last century of our own Carpenter branch of the family. Mr. Carpenter
deserves acclaim for tackling such a task and leaving this record for future
generations.