Robert Carter

“ On December 31, Robert Carter was laid beside his beloved wife in Greenwood. The funeral services were held in the Scotch Presbyterian Church. The attendance was very large, and many remarked on the great number of noble-looking old men who were present, — men who had co-operated with him in many a good word and work. ”

“ Robert Carter himself had character enough to go around, but when one considered that his character had been alloyed with hers to make this family it was a wonder that they had that within them that could throw off tradition and environment as they had done and undertake this camp that was proving quite a stupendous thing for mere girls.
“Well, Dr. Wright,” trilled Mrs. Carter, “isn’t this a delightful adventure for my girls to have amused themselves with? The girl of the day is certainly an enterprising person. ”

“ It is a friend whom thee greatly values.” “From New York or Philadelphia?” “From New York.” “Is it Robert Carter?” “It is.” The old man rose from his chair and held out his arms for an embrace, and then followed the interview which Mr. Carter describes in his letter. At bedtime the old gentleman proposed that they should have family worship together in Mr. Carter’s usual form before they separated, and accordingly Mr. Carter read the Bible and knelt in prayer, while Dr. and Mrs. Griscom kept their seats, as it was contrary to their custom to kneel. ”

“ Robert Carter is not the kind of man who would want his eighteen-year-old daughter and others even younger to go out into the world to make a living. He would rather die than have such a thing happen.”
“But we are not going to have him die,” broke in Helen. “I thought just as you do, Cousin Lizzie, until I saw him this afternoon and realized how worried he has been. We are going to do something and there are to be no debts awaiting him, either. What do you think of boarders? Do you think we could get any?”
“Who on earth would board with us, here in [76] Richmond? ”

“ Robert Carter looked in amazement at the great bowls of potato salad and the pans of rolls, being taken from the oven to make room for other pans.
“In heaven’s name, what is all this food for?” he asked, laughing.
“Have you seen the week-enders swarming up the mountain?”
“Why yes, but they couldn’t eat all this.”
“Don’t you fool yourself!” and Helen gave her dear father a fried apple hug. She was very happy. The beloved parents were back with them. Dr. Wright assured her that her father was improving. The camp had been her [56] very own idea and it was successful. ”

“ Three paper dollars and a pile of chicken feed silver! I can get cotton stockings for a centipede with that much money.”
It was a very pretty room that Douglas and Helen Carter shared. Robert Carter had brought to bear all the experience he had gained in building other persons’ houses to make his own house perfect. It was not a very large house but [92] every detail had been thought out so not one brick was amiss. Convenience and Beauty were not sacrificed to one another but went hand in hand. The girls loved their room with its dainty pink paper and egg-shell paint. ”

“ My own past intercourse with him is one of the delightful memories which I shall continue to cherish.”
Another member of the Board, Rev. W. C. Cattell, D.D., thus writes:—
“Yes, I loved and honored Robert Carter. It is a delight to me to recall his precious memory. Though much younger than he I was next him in seniority among the directors of Princeton Theological Seminary, We were associated in the Board nearly thirty years. It was always like a benediction to look upon his face, dear precious blessed man. Few men have I loved so much, and so did all love him who knew him.” ”

“ The substance which through the blessing of God he was enabled to accumulate, and the great influence which he was permitted to exert, were always devoted to good ends. Many a young man might testify: “All I have in life I owe to Robert Carter. ”

“ What is your plan?”
“I want to take Douglas to the White for several weeks preparatory to her making her debut this winter.”
“Debut!” gasped Helen. “White Sulphur!”
“Certainly, why not?”
“But, mother, we haven’t money for clothes and things.”
“Nonsense! Our credit is perfectly good. I [34] fancy there is not a man in Richmond who has paid his bills so regularly as Robert Carter, and now that he is not able to work for a few months I feel sure there is not a single tradesman with whom we have always dealt who would not be more than pleased to have us on his books for any amount.” ”

“ He doubtless felt his life was a failure. Perhaps the angels saw in it a higher success than they could find in the lives of some men who with less talent and more assurance climbed to a prominent position in the world.
The cousins were always very happy to meet on Mr. Robert Carter’s repeated visits to Scotland. It would be hard to say which felt the most grateful to the other. One ministered to the intellectual life of his boy cousin, the other smoothed the declining years of him who had befriended him in youth. ”

“ That's a man!' sez he. 'An he's going to be my manager if I can fix it. I'm Carter, o' ther C Bar!'
"Say I, 'th' hell ye are! I knowed ole Bob Carter afore ye was earmarked. You don't look none like him.' But his jaws snaps amazin'. 'My father is daid,' he whips out, 'but I am Robert Carter all the same.' I axes his pardon an' he hikes out on your trail. An' I sez to myself, he's some man, too!"
Douglass going out encountered a lady just entering the store. ”

“ For some years he spent his summers near us in the country, where in 1866 he received a visit from Dr. McCosh, who was then making his acquaintance with America, and the first time that we ever saw a face to which we were afterwards to look up with such a tender veneration was when Robert Carter and Dr. McCosh were on the lawn in front of the old farmhouse playing croquet. But the dear elder did not, any more than the learned divine, fail to seize every opportunity for doing good. He attended a little church among the bills, and his contribution to it was fully one tenth of the pastor’s salary ”

“ This careful supervision involved an immense amount of reading of manuscripts, often to a late hour at night, sometimes in very difficult handwriting, and yet to the close of his life he never used spectacles.
His authors were always his friends. At his funeral Dr. McCosh paid a warm tribute to his liberal dealings with him. Spurgeon wrote to him on one occasion, “I am glad that Robert Carter and Brothers are not only publishers of my sermons, but also true and generous friends, with whose conduct I am more than satisfied.” Dr. ”

“ The immigrant Carter had done well. His plantation was orderly and successful and he had accumulated considerable wealth.
John Carter died when Robert was six years old, and the elder son inherited the bulk of the estate, as was the custom then according to the law of primogeniture and entail.
But John Carter did not forget Robert. He left instructions that his younger son should be well educated, specifying that "during his minority" he should have a man or youth servant bought for him. This servant was "not only to teach him his books ... but also to preserve him from harm and evil." ”

“ Carter’s solemn and earnest talks as they sat in the quiet room, lighted often only by the open fire, can never be forgotten by his children. They will carry the impression of them to eternity. One of his sons specially remembers a story told on one Sabbath evening of a father who was a godly man, but whose children, while loving and dutiful to him, were utterly uninterested in the claims of religion. In vain he talked with them; they remained careless and unimpressed. One morning he came down to prayers, and took up the Bible, but was so overcome by deep feeling that he could not proceed. ”

“ Acquiring some 13,500 acres in the Northern Neck, the fertile region between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, John Carter [xxvi] had established his home "Corotoman" on the Rappahannock in Lancaster County. Becoming ere long a successful planter and businessman, Carter served first as a Burgess and then as a member of the governor's Council.
Robert or "King" Carter, son of the emigrant, so eclipsed his father that he has usually been regarded as founder of the family in Virginia. Bold, capable, and acquisitive, "King" Carter strove ceaselessly to expand the family fortunes. ”

“ Carter, “how little he foresaw that the time was coming when Robert and Alexander Stuart would give habitually fifty thousand a year to Foreign Missions and fifty thousand to Home Missions!” Truly he that is faithful in that which is least will be faithful also in much when the opportunity comes.
Mr. Carter’s love for missions was shown, not only in his regular attendance at the Mission Rooms and his large contributions to the work, but in his personal interest in missionaries. ”

“ Carter was one of those who took active part in all the religious services of this exciting period. His son carried through life the impression made by his father’s calmness and faith throughout the peril. He remembers his taking him in his arms, and saying, “We are in great danger. It is very probable that our ship will go down, down, down into the great sea, and we shall never see your two dear little brothers in this world; but if we love and trust the Lord Jesus, our souls will go up, up, up, into the blessed heaven, and we shall live always with our God.” ”

“ Carter, “the narrative of my honored friend ended. I tell it to you boys, to encourage you to faithful efforts to improve and develop yourselves. This man, who rose from obscurity entirely by his own efforts, with the blessing of God, is now one of the most learned men and eloquent orators of our day, holding large audiences of our most cultivated people spellbound while he discourses to them of the wonderful facts of astronomy. Of late a fearful storm of war has swept over our land. ”

“ Carter, I have no money, I cannot buy books. The money you have given me is for the church.” Mr. Carter told him they were his as a gift. “O how can I thank you! I never saw so many nice books together in my life.” They were made up in a huge bundle, and lifted to his shoulder, and Mr. Carter said his beaming face, as he went off with his load trying to bow his thanks to the very last, was a sight to see, He came about the store a good deal while he was stationed in New York, but finally removed to a distant part of the country. ”

“ He was a large contributor to the funds of the Board according to his ability, and continually carried the interest of its great work upon his mind and heart.
Mr. Carter was pre-eminently a man of prayer, His earnest and tender supplications for the outpouring of the Spirit upon missions will long be cherished by his associates as a sacred and inspiring memory. He was peculiarly courteous, genial, and kindly in all our deliberations. He seemed ever to be prompted by the spirit of Christ, and to be filled with love for those about him. ”

“ Carter to visit his children in their homes, and have them visit him in New York with their little ones, a few at a time. He wanted all his clan assembled under one roof, and for a considerable period; so during the vacations of the ministers he invited all to some country haunt. He found comfortable quarters in beautiful Berkshire, Massachusetts, first at Stockbridge, afterwards at South Egremont. As years passed on, the party increased, until at last, with mothers-in-law and brothers-in-law and babies and nurses, it frequently numbered nearly forty. ”

“ The poor young creature was taken back to her friends in Michigan.”
Mr. Carter’s father died, May 2, 1844, twelve years after coming to America. His sturdy Scotch character had won for him a place in the farming community in which he lived, in Saratoga County, New York. He was an active member of church and Sunday school, an ardent advocate of total abstinence and antislavery, for which causes he was ever ready to speak in public and private,—ready to run risks too, for in the days of the Fugitive Slave Law he was a conductor on the Underground Railway. ”

“ D. started to his feet, exclaiming, “You don’t know my partner, Mr. Carter. He is a bad man, and I would not settle this matter if you offered me fifty thousand dollars.” “I have no fifty thousand to offer.” And the interview ended. Years passed, and one day Mr. D. entered Mr. Carter’s store, and sought a private conversation with him. He told him that he felt himself to be a changed man, that he realized the worldliness of all his former life, and that the night before he had gone up to the altar of the Methodist Church which he attended, and that he believed himself converted. ”

“ Carter,” was the reply, “if you imagine that his grandchildren stand in awe of him. They themselves do not enjoy their fun more than he does.”
Many beautiful gifts were sent him, some of them with a tender sentiment attached. One that pleased him much was a vase with fifty lovely roses, from the printer that he had employed for fifty years.
On the 1st of April he passed the fiftieth anniversary of entering into business. The publishers of New York united in sending him the following testimonial. ”

“ A young man from Scotland came to New York with a letter of introduction to him. Before leaving his home his father said to him, “You must be careful how you behave when you visit Mr. Carter; he is an elder in the church, and will tolerate no frivolity.” When the young man came to deliver his letter, the family were engaged in a game of blindman’s-buff in their dining-room, Mr. Carter went to his guest in the parlor, and, remembering his own days of loneliness when he was a stranger in a strange land, he thought a little taste of home life would do him good ”