Kentucky:  A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 3rd ed., 
1886. Allen County.

BENJAMIN CARPENTER was born November 3, 1818, in Monroe County, near 
Fountain Run.  He is the third of four sons and four daughters, all of 
whom lived to be grown, born to Samuel E. and Sarah G. (Downing) 
Carpenter.  Samuel E. Carpenter was born in North Carolina, and came 
with his parents to Kentucky when a lad of six years.  He was one of the 
prominent farmers of Allen County; owned a large number of slaves; 
served as magistrate for a number of terms; was sheriff one term under 
the old constitution; was also in State Senate one term from Allen 
County; also represented his county in the Lower House.  He owned 1,000 
acres and about forty negroes, and was one of the prominent and 
representative men of his county.  He died in March, 1877, aged eighty-
three years.  He was an honorable Christian gentleman, and a leading 
member of the Baptist Church; was a Whig and a strong Union man.  On one 
occasion he was taken prisoner by th Confederate soldiers and requested 
to take their oath, which he refused to do, stating that he would stand 
by the old flag, the constitution, and the Union forever; he was paroled 
and permitted to return home.  He was a son of Samuel E. Carpenter, who 
was born and reared in North Carolina, where he ranked as one of the 
foremost men of his county.  He served many terms in the North Carolina 
Legislature.  He immigrated to Kentucky and settled, in 1797, in Barren 
County, now Monroe County, where he purchased a large tract of land, and 
owned a family of slaves.  His parents came from Germany.  Our subject's 
mother was born in Green County and reared in Allen, and was a daughter 
of James Downing, who married a Miss Grey.  Benjamin Carpenter remained 
with his parents until his marriage with Jane Orr, of Marshall County, 
Tenn., in March, 1844.  She was a daughter of John and Margaret 
(Carpenter) Orr, natives of North Carolina.  Margaret Carpenter was a 
sister of our subject's father.  John Orr was a farmer, and came to 
Marshall County, Tenn., about 1800. His parents came from Ireland.  To 
Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter four children were born, but two living:  John S. 
and Sarah M. Hughes.  He is a member of the Baptist Church, and his wife 
of the Presbyterian Church.  After his marriage he located where he now 
resides, on 140 acres; he now owns 200, which he has improved; also owns 
160 acres in Kansas, and was the owner of ten or twelve negroes when the 
war broke out.  He has accumulated what he has mostly by his own 
industry and economy.  He cast his first presidential vote for William 
H. Harrison; since the war has been a Democrat.

Carpenter Downing Grey Hughes Orr
=
Barren Fountain_Run-Monroe Germany Green Ireland KS Marshall-TN NC

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/allen/carpenter.b.txt