This excerpt from "Centennial Celebration 1872-1972 Carterville Illinois souvenir program" was written by Maranda Cavanas Scobey In 1869, Laban Carter, in whose honor Carterville was named, discovered coal on his farm, a mere half mile north of the country road, now known as Division Street, which separated his land from the forty acre farm of his neighbor, GEORGE M. MCNEILL. Mr. Carter set about to determine the industrial possibilities. About the same time, Mr. McNeill hired WILLIAM H. BUNDY and HEZAKIAH L. BEASLEY to survey and plat his entire tract of land for town lots. The Carbondale and Shawneetown Railroad, later known as the Illinois Central, was in the process of being built, and then sought permission to cross his townsite as well as to extend a spur track to the Dodd mine shaft on the Carter land. A post office and depot were needed. The post office from Fredonia accordingly was moved to the home of George M. McNeill, and he was appointed postmaster on Dec. 18, 1871. His residence was also Carterville's first hotel. The railroad built a depot opposite the hotel. With a mine, a post office, and a railroad, a boon was on! Ere long with many prospectors and investors seeking the wealth of the fabulous Black Diamond treasure discovered here, Carterville became the hub of the soft coal industry in the midwest with the scores of deep-shaft mines that ultimately were nationally famous for the best grade of bituminous coal anywhere. And to think the once prairie woodland on the co-founder acreages had rapidly changed from an agricultural and timber area to a noted mining town shipping coal via the numerous Illinois Central trains at all hours to distant industrial cities! After the filing of the town plat at Marion, Feb. 21, 1872, a petition was drawn up for a village charter which contained thirty-six signatures. A population of three hundred was sworn to by J. A. BANDY, and George M. McNeill before L. D. CRAIN, Justice of the Peace, at Crain City, and the petition approved April 10, 1872. The officers chosen for the new village were President, JONATHAN BANDY; Clerk, J. O. HERRIN; Treasurer, LABAN CARTER, Trustees, WILLIAM TRANBARGER; V. S. HARRIS, E. C. JONES, JAMES BLAIR, and GEORGE MCNEILL. In 1892 the village was incorporated as a city with the following public officers; G. C. PHILLIPS, Mayor; M. W. SIZEMORE, Clerk; J. B. SAMUEL, Treasurer; c. A. BAUDER, Attorney; Alderman, W. W. SNYDER, P. J. TETER, JOHN BEVARD, J. C. RILEY, DAVE MCFADDEN, and T. J. MOAKE. An old record of 1903 states: "The official roll call of the city is as follows: E. B. WATSON, Mayor; JAMES BALLOW, Clerk; WILLIAM MCEWAN, Treasurer, J. L. GALLIMORE, City Attorney; S. P. WATSON, Street Commissioner; B. P. BANDY, Police Magistrate; GEORGE WALKER, City Marshall; CHARLES CRAIG and L. E. ROBERTSON, Justice of the Peace, Council, HENRY ZIMMERMAN, JAMES WINNING, JOHN MURPHY, JAMES MCEWAN, JOSEPH STALCUP, SAMUEL RUSSELL. "The city has a good fire brigade under R. H. H. HAMPTON, Captain, and is well provided with fire fighting apparatus. "It is furnished with electric lights by the Hope Electric Light Co., and is one of the best lighted cities in Southern Illinois. It has a fine grove, which was purchased for a park in 1894, where all out of door public gatherings are held. "The city has been visited by very destructive fires four times. The first in March, 1885; then in April, 1897; August, 1898, and August, 1900. But it has been practically rebuilt with brick in a more substantial manner, much to the satisfaction of the inhabitants. This excerpt of the same booklet, was writtey by Mayor Frank. R. Samuel The Laban Carter of a hundred years ago probably didn't dream the town he shared in establishing, and gave his name, would, in less than a century, be the home of two colleges, gateway to Crab Orchard Lake and related tourist attractions. Laban Carter's land consisted of 960 acres, most of which lay north of East Grand Avenue (not even a path then) and east of North Division Street. Several years after he discovered an outcropping of coal on his land, Carter stirred things up. Out of the stirring came a coal mine, with several imported operators and miners from Scotland (many of whose families are still here) and a railroad in which Carter also owned stock. Laban Carter was born in 1822, and his first wife was BERRILIA. This union produced 6 children, Mary, John, James, Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, and Levi. Some of their offspring may be remembered by older Carterville residents. Harvey was the son of James (Doc), Mary Bennett and Henry Mann were children of Elizabeth, and Mint was the daughter of Levi. Laban's 2nd wife was NANCY SNODGRASS, and if you are interested in lineage, the descendants have traced both sides. Nancy's family was Scotch, and the family tree has some of its roots in royalty. Laban was far short on credentials, too, since his mother was JANE HOLT, daughter of a governor of Virginia. Laban and Nancy had 6 children, William, Sarah Jane, Minnie Dell, Thomas, Maggie, and Barnett, whom most people knew only as Barney. Flashing back to about 1875, let's visit the old Laban Carter homeplace, which was a farmhouse near the tiny new village of Carterville. The house was spacious for its time, frame and two-storied. The main room boasted a huge fireplace, a large rag rug, and a big bed in one corner. This was the "family" room, in which some gatherings were held. But the parlor was fancier. It featured, in addition to a beautiful Franklin stove, a pump organ, which daughter Minnie played as she sang. Laban had planned his house with a big dining room, and the table was necessarily huge, because practically every Sunday, he invited the entire Methodist congregation and their children, to sit at his table. Stories passed down through the generations indicate that frequently there were several wagonloads at the Carter's Sunday dinners, and shifts were required to feed them all. Upstairs there were several bedrooms, some of which had four big beds, so there was plenty of room for overnight visitors. Behind the big kitchen was the smokehouse where the hams and bacon slabs were cured. It was also a summer kitchen, to keep heat from the main house. attached to the smokehouse was a lean-to that held an ash hopper, and from this came the almost pure lye Nancy and the girls used in soap-making. Stories have it that Granny Nancy had a huge brass kettle in which the soap, hominy and apple butter were all made. The kettle was famous far and near, but when anyone borrowed it, Granny went along to guard it as well as to help with the "makin'". Toward the end of her life, Granny Carter and her friends had stirred so much so often, that the bottom of her solid brass kettle was almost paper thin. It's a matter of record, too, that Granny's peach butter was every bit as good as her apple butter, and, with an eye to the niceties of life, she used sassafras root to scent the soap she made. The Carter homestead was a comfortable and pleasant place, with its shady yard studded with fine walnut and cedar trees. There was a flower garden, an herb garden for the kitchen, as well as the vegetable gardens. The barn lay farther out, and later, when the making of bricks began on Laban's farm, there was a brickyard pond and a loading platform near the new railroad tracks. If there was strictness in some sense of the word, there was also the balance of fun. This was especially true of the second generation of Carterville pioneer families. The board floors of barns resounded to sounds of square dancing, and the 1880[s saw an even fancier version of the Victorian Age emerge. Some of the houses of Carterville were centers of colorful social events, and the silks and satins of a more refined society in the 90's replaced the homespun and ginghams of the first generation of settlers.