Thomas Henry Carter was born in Ohio in 1854, the son of Edward C. and Margaret Carter. After his admission to the bar, Carter established a practice in Burlington, Iowa. In 1882, he moved to Helena, Montana Territory, and after a brief private practice, he associated with John B. Clayberg in the firm of Carter and Clayberg. In November 1889, he was the territorial delegate for the state when Montana gained statehood. After the admission of Montana as a state, he was elected its first representative in Congress in December 1889. He then served in the U.S. Senate from 1895 to 1901, and again from 1905 to 1911. In addition, Carter was the commissioner of the U.S. General Land Office (1891-1892), chairman of the Republican National Committee (1892-1896), and U.S. commissioner to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Mo. (1904). Carter died on September 17, 1911 at his Washington, D.C. home. Julia Ann Carter Lang was Thomas's sister and wrote an unpublished family biography.
In the file of this collection is a letter dated March 8, 1971 explaining the source of the microfilm included with a photocopy of the request for materials filed by M.G. Burlingame with the Library of Congress. It shows that the letters and memos listed by correspondent and date were within the time period 1908-1911. Accompanying this information is a set of copied transcriptions of some of the letters about Montana politics and elections 1908-1909. The final piece in the file is a Xeroxed copy of a biographical sketch of Thomas H. Carter and other Carter family members by his sister, Julia Carter Lang. Also present in the collection is the original microfilm from the Library of Congress. This filmed general correspondence includes correspondents Edwin Beattie, Bishop John Carroll, O. M. Lanstrum, A.W. Miles, Martin Maginnis, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft plus various Federal government departments and Montana businesses and organizations.
This collection is open for research.
One reel of microfilmed Thomas H. Carter letters located at the Library of Congress; a letter of explanation regarding the microfilm's creation; a copy of the original Reader's Request for Photo Duplication of selected Carter Papers prepared by M.G. Burlingame in 1965; typed transcriptions which are a sampling of the 1000 pages of letters contained on the microfilm; and an untitled, undated biographical sketch of the Carter Family by Thomas's sister Julia Carter Lang were donated to Special Collections, Montana State University Library, by Merrill G. Burlingame in 1971.
This collection was processed 2009 May 19