A portion of the map of the town of Ellicott in the 1881 atlas of Chautauqua County, which shows the location of a parcel of land owned by Alexander Carter. This parcel was know as Carter’s Woods by the residents of Jamestown, and even today by descendants of Alexander’s wife, Melissa. Submitted photo

February is Black History Month, when centuries of Black History in this country are highlighted. Keeping with local history for this column and continuing with my research on one person in Jamestown’s early history, this column is contains with more about Robert Alexander Carter. He has appeared in other columns that I have written over the past number of years. For readers who have missed those articles or have forgotten just who Robert Alexander Carter was, I will first give a few facts about him and his life.

The beginning of my adventure was his portrait, which is hanging at the Fenton History Center. When the family member donated the portrait, very little information about him was given. By the donor of the portrait and by a history book, he was referred to as Ellick Carter. When staff was trying to verify the meager information, I volunteered to check census records on him and his family. We knew his wife was Melissa and that they lived at 626 Spring Street in Jamestown. From Anderson’s Conquest of Chautauqua, we knew that he was the lamplighter in Jamestown and that he had a horse. His birth year was given as 1838 and his death year was 1892.

From that small amount of information, research over the past 20 years has produced facts — he was born into slavery in Maryland or possibly Delaware; the slave holding family and plantation have been identified; siblings have been identified; his journey to freedom began in 1858 when the plantation owner died; he went first to Canada, married there, and they went to Haiti; his wife died in Haiti; he next appears in 1864 buying land in the Town of Ellicott; he joins the Union Army as a private in the 10th Regiment, U. S. Colored Troops in 1864; he marries Melissa King in Elmira, New York in 1865; he is mustered out of the Union Army in 1865; he and Melissa are in Buffalo for the 1865 New York State Census; they are back in Chautauqua County by 1866 when they sell the land he acquired in 1864; he served as the city’s lamplighter for a number of years; he died in 1892 and Melissa died in 1919. Many more details have been found to expand the above facts, but there are more stories, facts, and family to continue to “flesh out” these “bare-bone” facts.

My continuing research is now looking at the land transactions of Alexander (the name he uses in most instances) and Melissa, and their relatives. So far the deeds in Chautauqua County have been collected and read, but not platted to understand some of the pieces of property and the acquisition and disposal of the parcels over time.

They purchased land on Spring Street. Melissa inherited land located near Cherry Street that her mother had purchased. It appears that parts of these parcels were sold at intervals. More research needs to be done to be sure that was what happened. Mortgage records also have to be consulted as some mortgages are mentioned in some of the deeds.

But one piece of property of interest is the 12 acre plot known as Carter’s Woods. Alexander purchased these 12 acres in 1875. This parcel of land is located at the corner of what is now Marvin Parkway and Lakeview Avenue. According to the map of the town of Ellicott in the 1881 Atlas of Chautauqua County, Marvin Parkway extended from North Main Street east to just past that corner. Lakeview Avenue had not been extended to that corner. Lakeview Avenue stopped then at the end of East Oak Hill Rd. which is now contained within Lake View Cemetery. Over the next 26 years it appears that a few smaller parcels were sold until the final sale of the rest of the 12 acres was made by Melissa in 1903. One story involves Alexander and the Woods. Apparently at one time he received an injury to one of his eyes while working in the Woods. One wonders if those 12 acres were heavily wooded and his income included the sale of wood from there. If he cleared some of the woods over time, he could have sold the cleared land as lots to potential residents. And so the search for more details of his life continues.