HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III, pp. 1217-18. [Kenton County] OWEN J. CARPENTER, a wholesale liquor dealer and one of Covington's leading real estate developers, is a native Kentuckian and his ancestry numbers among its members some of the most valuable and interesting of the Blue Grass state pioneers. He was born in Boone county, February 7, 1854, and is the son of Caleb and Zeurilda (Utz) Carpenter, both of whom were likewise natives of the county which was once the scene of the activities of celebrated Daniel Boone and which appropriately received his cognomen. The Carpenter family was originally one of the Colonial families of Virginia and a few citizens of the "Old Dominion" were better known or more beloved than Mr. Carpenter's great-grandfather, the Rev. William Carpenter, a German Lutheran minister who for many years labored for the welfare of humanity "without money and without price." The above-mentioned William Carpenter was born in Madison county, Virginia, May 20, 1762, but he later cast his fortune with Kentucky, founding the Carpenter family there and being one of the Boone county pioneers. In 1778, when only sixteen years of age, he entered the Colonial army and served until the close of the Revolution. He seemed to have studied theology under the Rev. G. Henkel and as he was a member of the Pennsylvania Ministerium it is likely that he was ordained by that body. His ordination must have been satisfactory for he was called upon to minister in Episcopal pulpits without question. He was, however, Lutheran in faith and ministered in that church for many years, being the father of that church organization in Boone county. His identification with clerical affairs began with his twenty-fifth year and his early career was passed in his native county in Virginia. In 1813 he came to Kentucky, located near Florence, in Boone county, and there entered upon many years of great usefulness, his entire service as an exponent of the Scriptures being of forty-five years duration. Twenty-six years of this time he served as pastor of the Hebron church in his native county in Virginia, and he followed a colony composed of members of his church to Boone county where he was pastor for nearly twenty years prior to his death, on February 18, 1833. He, with others who contemplated removing to Kentucky's fertile acres, made a trip of inspection to Boone county in 1804, but it was fully nine years later when he settled there permanently. By heritage and his own activities he was a man of means and he secured a large farm in the new home, upon which he lived with his family and slaves during the remained of his lifetime. As he asked and received no salary for his ministerial labors a farm was a practical necessity. This tract was located near the present town of Florence and was an attractive and valuable property and his family of boys and his slaves cleared and tilled it. It has been said of him that he never laced the comforts and never craved the luxuries. He was a typical pioneer of the better class and presented a distinguished appearance in his Colonial costume, with his knee breeches, which he wore up to the time of his death. Of William Carpenter, pioneer preacher and philanthropist, it may truly be said that he devoted his entire life to the uplift of humanity, and the memory and influence of the good he died assuredly was not "interred with his bones." Caleb Carpenter, the father of Owen J. Carpenter, was reared and educated in Boone county and for several years followed the occupation of a farmer and stock trader. He located in Covington, Kentucky in 1871, and at one time during his residence in this city engaged in the wholesale liquor business. He was cut off in the prime of his life, his death occurring in 1878, at the age of forty-nine years. His widow survived him for three decades, dying at Delhi, Ohio, in 1908, at the age of seventy-five years. She was a daughter of David Utz, a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, and of German descent. Like the forbears on the paternal side of the family he came to Kentucky at an early day. The name of his father was Absalom Utz. Mr. Carpenter was the third in order of birth of the eight children of his parents, five of these surviving at the present day. The pleasant, if strenuous, experience of the farmer's son were the lot of Owen J. Carpenter in his early years. He received a common school education and was about eighteen years of age when he removed with his parents to Covington in the fall of 1871. The following year he became associated with his father in the wholesale liquor business, and in 1879, shortly after his father's demise, he became established in this business on his own account in partnership with his brother David L. In 1886 he succeeded to the entire management of the concern and has ever since operated it with financial success. The talents of Mr. Carpenter, fortunately, have not been confined to his one line of endeavor, but he has from time to time been interested in various business enterprises and corporations of Covington and vicinity. Much of his time has been expended upon real estate development, and his services in this line to the city of his residence are indeed commendable. He is known as the "father of Ft. Mitchell", a suburb, and it was through his well-directed effort that electric roads were built thereto. He bought the land now occupied by the town of Ft. Mitchell, platted the same and sold it, having secured means of conveyance and transportation to the larger town. Subsequently several additions to the same were platted and Ft. Mitchell, now a corporation of the sixth class, can boast of some of the finest residences in this section of the country. As one of the organizers of the Kenton Water Company Mr. Carpenter is likewise entitled to credit, he having served for many years as president of the forgoing. This company was largely instrumental in building up the suburb of Latonia. In the face of this distinguished achievement it is not strange that Mr. Carpenter is accounted one of the leaders in upbuilding this section. Mr. Carpenter forsook the ranks of the bachelors and laid the foundation of a congenial home life by his marriage on the 18th day of October, 1883, the lady to become his wife being Mattie J. Adams, a native of Missouri, who was brought by her parents to Versailles, Kentucky, at the time of the Civil war, she being then an infant. Her father was William W. Adams, for many years a prominent stock man of Lexington, Kentucky. Two sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, William A. and Owen Coleman, the latter of whom died at the age of seven years. Mr. Carpenter was for many years a Democrat, but sine 1896 he has cast his vote with the Republican party. Carpenter Utz Adams = Florence-Boone-KY Lexington-Fayette-KY Versailles-Woodford-KY Culpeper-VA Madison-VA MO http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/kenton/carpenter.oj.txt