Holmes County Mississippi Biographies and Biographical Sketches

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CARTER, Samuel S. Biography

Samuel S. Carter is the president of the First national bank of Jackson, Miss., and its prosperous condition is largely due to Dr. Carter, who possesses experience, sound judgment and efficiency. He was born in Holmes county, .Miss., the younger of two children born to Richard and Louise (Sample) Carter, both of whom were born, reared and married in South Carolina and came to Mississippi about 183S. The father was a merchant and died soon after settlement in this state. His widow afterward married Rev. William Harris, a Presbyterian minister, who conducted a large school and was an experienced and successful educator. The mother died in 1855, and Mr. Harris later in the same year. Samuel S. Carter attended his stepfather’s school until he was fifteen years of age and then entered the State university at Oxford, from which he graduated in 1S59. Immediately succeeding this he entered the New Orleans medical college, from which he graduated in 1801. Ho soon afterward entered the Confederate army, becoming a member of company K (Burt Rifles), of the Eighteenth Mississippi regiment, soon after which he was made assistant surgeon, and remained a member of Humphries’ brigade until the close of the war. Immediately after reaching his old home he was married to Miss America P. Sample, of Holmes county, and settled on a plantation which he continued to till for about five years. Following this he turned his attention to merchandising, and was successfully engaged in this business until January, 1885, when he sold out. He has been quite active in politics, and in 1875 was elected to the legislature from Holmes county, and, with the rest of the ticket, was the first democrat to be elected from that county. He was again honored by an election in 1877, and upon being once more renominated declined to serve. In May, 1885, he came to Jackson and organized the First national bank of this city, and after serving six months as vice president, he was made president, although the sole management of the bank was in his charge from the start. The first nine months after the organization of the bank, it was run on a capital of $50,000, which was at the end of this time increased to $100,000, the surplus and undivided protits reaching the amount of $175,000. This bank is recognized as a sound and substantial financial institution, its methods being safe and conservative, and its credit of the highest character. Hr Carter is one of the directors of the Light, Heat and Water company, is a stockholder in the Jackson grocery company, and is secretary and treasurer of the Capital fertilizer company, and stockholder and director of the Compress and Warehouse company, the most of which institutions he assisted in organizing. Dr. Carter is finely educated, and is especially well posted in literary and medical topics, although he is well up with the times on .all subjects. He has not practiced his profession since the war, much preferring to devote his time and attention to planting and business, in both of which he made a success. He is one of the far-seeing, shrewd and practical business men of the state, and since the management of the First national bank has been in his hands it has reached a financial status highly satisfactory. He has one daughter, Hallie. His wife is a member of the Presbyterian church, is a worthy Christian lady and is a faithful wife and mother. They have a beautiful and comfortable home in Jackson and move in the highest social circles of the citv. [Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Chicago, The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891.]