William Thomas Carter, Jr., biography c. 1926
[New Encyclopedia of Texas]
 
 
 
 
  Source: Davis, Ellis A. and Edwin H. Grobe, eds. New Encyclopedia of Texas. Dallas, Tex. Texas Development Bureau, 1926. Vol. I, p. 425.
 
     
     
 

W.T. CARTER, JR., president W. T. Carter Lumber and Building Company, is well known in the lumber and financial circles of Houston where he has been engaged in the lumber business during all of his business life. Mr. Carter personally came into the business in 1909 and is one of the organizers of the W. T. Carter Lumber and Building Company. W. T. Carter and Bro., another of his interests, are manufacturers of both pine and hardwood lumber with mills located at Camden, Polk County. Their pine lumber mill has a capacity of 125,000 feet per day and their hardwood mill has a capacity of 30,000 feet per day of oak, magnolia and gum lumber. About five hundred people are employed in the two mills. Mr. Carter's brother, A. L. Carter, is in charge of the mill and manufacturing end of the business, while J. J. Carroll is in charge of the sales. The yards of W. T. Carter Lumber and Building Company occupy a space of five acres, and all kinds of building supplies are manufactured and sold by this company. Their building at the yards is two hundred feet by three hundred feet in size and twenty-three people are employed. The W. T. Carter Lumber and Building Company was organized in 1909 and incorporated in 1910. It does a great deal of building and selling of residences. Other officers of the company are: A. L. Carter, vice president, and Y. M. Holston, secretary and treasurer. Offices are located at 1201 Capitol Avenue.

A native Texan, Mr. Carter was born in Polk County, January 24th, 1887. W. T. Carter, Sr., during his lifetime was one of the leading citizens of Houston and in the lumber circles of the State. His father, J. J. Carter, came to Texas in 1849 and settled in Cherokee County; the family was an old Southern family. J. J. Carter was senior captain Hubbard's Regiment, and made a fine record during the Civil War. W. T. Carter, Sr., made a reputation as a great saw mill man and lumberman. He built, with his brother, E. A. Carter, the first steel saw mill ever built in Texas. At the age of seventeen years, without funds or financial assistance, he entered the saw mill business. Being unable to pay his laboring men in money, he exchanged with them lumber for their labor and these men helped him to build his first saw mill. This mill was located two miles west of Trinity and was operated in 1873 and 1874. It was moved several times to other locations. W. T. Carter, Jr., attended the public and high schools, and later the University of Chicago, and in 1908 began his business career in Houston, where he is connected with many of the commercial interests. He is a director of the Union National Bank, a director in the Guardian Trust Company, vice president and director of the A. L. Carter Lumber Company of Beaumont, Texas, and president of the Carter Investment Company. His brother, A. L. Carter, is president of the A. L. Carter Lumber Company of Beaumont, Texas, which was organized in 1916. and is vice president of the Union National Bank. Mr. Carter was married in Houston November 29th, 1910, to Miss Lillian Neuhaus, a native of the Lone Star State and a daughter of J. V. Neuhaus, president of the South Texas Grain Company and a director of the South Texas Commercial National Bank. They have two children: W. T. Carter III. and Victor N. Carter. Mr. Carter is a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity of Chicago University, Houston Country, Houston, Lumbermans and the University Clubs.

 
     
     
     
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Text and images were digitized and proofread from the original source documents by Murry Hammond. Contact Murry for all corrections and contributions of new material.