Life is full of strange and interesting odysseys, crossroads, and intersections. For me, Carthage is a classic example. While I have never lived in Carthage, I have visited America’s Maple Leaf City on numerous occasions. My grandfather, Archie Starcher, about whom Carthage News Online published a profile in 2020 Looking Back: A genealogy journey, lived in Carthage off and on for many years. During one of my first visits to see him, I also visited my great grandmother, Luzena May Keller, widow of Tom Keller. She lived at 319 N. Garrison Avenue. During that visit in the 1940s when I was still too young for elementary school, someone told me that money grows on trees and I proceeded to bury all of my pennies in her backyard garden. Apparently, folks found pennies in that garden for years. Whether at the N. Garrison home or another home in Carthage, I vividly remember being told about her having a dirt basement that doubled as an ice box of sorts with the family’s eggs being stored there. One day when someone was sent to retrieve some eggs for a meal, the person found a dead blacksnake in the basement. In its zeal for eggs, the reptile had mistakenly swallowed an old white porcelain doorknob which was its undoing. For a four-year old, that’s a story that you don’t unhear.
On another visit to Carthage as a youngster, I visited my grandfather who, at the time was living on a farm. On that trip, I scoured his fields and found nearly 20 box turtles and one turtle shell with the bones still in it. At the time, my family and I were living in Fayetteville, Arkansas where my dad was getting his Master’s degree. I had my prized collection of turtles in a cardboard box along with the turtle shell and when we returned to Arkansas left the box outside overnight. As it turned out, it rained that night and the cardboard box disintegrated and when I went out to see all of my new pets the next morning, they were all gone except for the one turtle shell and its bones.
After a short stay in Arkansas, we moved, and I grew up in Maryland where I attended elementary through high school. Even in elementary school, I gained a genuine interest in the Civil War. On multiple occasions, I got to visit the Gettysburg battlefield museum and became intimately familiar with terms like Devil’s Den, Little Round Top, Seminary Ridge, Pickett’s Charge, etc.
My interest in the Civil war was partly generated by my grandfather Starcher who was equally interested in that War and was very familiar with its history in Jasper County. After graduating from high school, I attended college in San Diego and for an American History class in 1962, wrote a lengthy term paper on the Civil War in Missouri. My grandfather provided numerous research materials that I used for the paper. Once it was completed and had been graded by my professor, I sent a copy to my grandfather for his review. Carthage would surface again when unbeknownst to me but in his typical style, he shared a copy of the term paper with the Editor of The Carthage Evening Press who, in turn, published it as a series of articles in the Press during the Civil War Centennial.
Once again. the intersection of life and Carthage would surface the following year when I received word that my grandfather’s best friend, John Carter, had died prematurely and unexpectedly in May 1963. It was then that I learned John Carter’s father was John Addison Carter, MD, who was a member of the Union Army during that War Between the States. He was a Captain in the Iowa 40th Infantry. Before he died, John Carter had gifted my grandfather his father’s Civil War sword. In turn, my grandfather gifted that Civil War sword to me. I had the sword for a few years but decided that it rightfully belonged in Carthage where Dr. Carter had lived and died and where it could be viewed by Carthaginians and those interested in the Civil War in Missouri.
What would be a better venue for its viewing than the newly opened Civil War Museum in Carthage? So, in 1992, I gave it to my father to deliver to then Carthage Mayor, Herbert Casteel. For Civil War enthusiasts and those who would like to learn more about the War, the Carthage Museum is a great place to visit and in this climate of high inflation, the price of admission is perfect: FREE.
Mayor Casteel sent me a very thoughtful letter acknowledging the gift and shortly thereafter, I was able to get to Carthage and have a photo taken with the Mayor in front of the exhibit displaying the sword.
In front of display showing Dr. Carter’s Civil War sword
October 1993
More recently, a former Georgia neighbor who knew of my family’s and my ties to Carthage sent me a link to a New York Post article on two homes for sale in Carthage – – for $3.1 million dollars.
Once again, my life would intersect with Carthage. This time, the topic was the home of Dr. John Carter who built an absolutely exquisite home on East Chestnut and that home and one more recently built have captured the imagination of several people. After receiving the article, I did a quick Internet search on the two homes and there are at least a dozen websites of various realty companies showing the homes. The New York Post article includes dozens of photos showing the great craftsmanship of the two homes and their unique aspects including an underground tunnel connecting them.
Further research showed (courtesy of Find-a-Grave.com) an article in the January 15, 1891, issue of The Carthage Weekly Press which described Dr. Carter’s vision for his new home and how detailed it was going to be. Costs for the original home were estimated at that time to be $15,000 with overruns that might go as high as $25,000.
While I have never lived in Carthage, I believe my life has been enriched by the multiple intersections I’ve had with this great little city – – both of its history and its people.
