Henry Carpenter, hardware dealer, Arcadia, Iowa, is the oldest business man of the place. He located in the village June 8, 1872, and erected a business house, the first one in the town, that season, and engaged in general merchandising. He continued in business until 1875, when he sold out and engaged in farming and stock-buying. From September 18, 1881, until October, 1885, he was postmaster at Arcadia, and since that time has been in the hardware business. He has been a notary public since 1872, school treasurer a number of years, and also township trustee. In politics he is a Republican. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the defense of his country, and was assigned to Company H, One Hundred and Fifth Illinois Infantry, and served three years, engaged the most of the time in guerrilla fighting. His regiment was with Sherman to the sea, but at that time Mr. Carpenter was on detached duty at Nashville with General Thomas when he destroyed Hood’s army. He contracted disease while in the service, from which he will probably never recover. After the war closed he returned to Sandwich, Illinois, where he worked for the Sandwich Manufacturing Company until he came to Iowa in 1872. Mr. Carpenter was born in Onondaga County, New York, in 1834, a son of Henry and Rosanna M. (Fay) Carpenter, natives of Vermont and New York. In 1836 his father moved to Ottawa, Illinois, where he soon after died, and his mother afterward pre-empted land in De Kalb County, where the family were among the first settlers. He was married in De Kalb County to Mary E. Hasbrook, a native of Dutchess County, New York. They have two children—Lillian H., wife of Byron Yant, of Mercer County, Ohio, and Wallace F., at home. One daughter died at Arcadia in December, 1881, aged twenty-eight years, and two children, Frank and Hattie, died in early childhood.

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