FAMILY FACE v2: Family History and Images: Thomas Benjamin Carter

The search into my husband's family line has provided many frustrating and exciting moments. In searching out the family of Emily Jane Cain (spelled Kane on her marriage license) who married William Hudson in 1868, Evansville, Indiana I had so little to go on. Yet searching and luck helped solidify her family of origin. Sweeping away confusions and partial memories I was able to identify her family as that of Millie Greer who married first one Cullen Wesley Carter (only one marriage reference has been found for them in 1835 Hancock Co., Ind so far no digital images). She had several sons in that marriage: Robert, John M. and Thomas Benjamin Carter. She then in 1844 married Lewis Cain in Wayne Co., Indiana and had Henry, Alexander, Emily Jane and William.They are found there on the 1850 census. In 1855 she marries a widower, Enoch Sales, in Wayne Co. and she and Thomas and Emily are listed as "Sailes" in the 1860 census. With them is one James Sailes, a young boy.

Civil War. He enlisted, Com. L 8th Ind Cav, and was sent to Tennessee during the war. There, he was kicked by a mule and crippled. He later developed some heart problems resulting in his on again-off again admittance to the Leavenworth Hospital for Veterans.

At the time of the 1870 census Thomas Carter is living in the same residence (according to Evansville City Directory of the time) where one Milly Carter, widow, is living. Her birth date and place match that of Millie Greer Carter Cain Sales - but she is listed as Parker - so one can assume she married again before 1870. On the 1870 census they are located in Pigeon Twp (matching the area of the directory address) and enumerated there are Thomas Carter, William Cain, and a five year old 'Benjamin Cain'. This is, I believe, Thomas Benjamin Carter,his half brother William Cain (17) and a child who may be the child of Emily Jane Cain, Thomas Benjamin Cain (listed with Emily and William Hudson in the 1880 Mounds, Pulaski, Ill census).

In verifying that connection, I was lucky to stumble on a page in the Veterans Hospital at Leavenworth, Kansas for Thomas Benjamin Carter listing as his next of kin at time of admittance in 1889 a nephew - Louis Hudson in Villa Ridge, Pulaski, Ill. This proved the connection and verified the family tree built to that time. There was, also, an intriguing note about a wife of said Thomas - one Sallie J. Belt Carter. Searching I was able then to discover they married about 1904 (still no marriage listing found so date based on responses on the 1910 census in Delaware Twp., Leavenworth, Ks). It was her second and his first marriage according to the same census. Search for her - it is always good to search the children spouses, etc. to discover data to verify and build a ase for connections - uncovered her name was Sarah Jane "Sallie" Gilliam who had married in Franklin Co., Arkansas in 1880 one Samuel Esau Belt. He died in the same Veterans hospital where Thomas B. Carter visited and is buried there in the National Cemetery (1901). Trying to locate Sallie's grave I had no luck until I looked under the name "Belt". There I found a grave for the widow of "Samuel E. Belt" showing her first husband and some children (FindaGrave and Billon Graves). Thomas as 2nd husband was totally forgotten or ignored.

Contact with other descendants uncovered two receipts for grave plots. At first I assumed they belonged to him and a wife. Further research leads to the likely conclusion, based on the facts as known, that he purchased on plot in 1874 for the Mechanicsville Burying Plot, Vanderburgh County, Indiana for his mother. In 1886 he purchases a plot in the Cairo City Cemetery and this may be for his sister.