Hamilton Carhartt, cotton manufacturer, whose identification with the business interests of Detroit dates from 1884, is now the head of an immense business conducted under the name of the Hamilton Carhartt Cotton Mills. His operations as a cotton manufacturer extend also to various points in the south, in the extreme west and in Canada, and thus he has become one of the recognized leaders in his chosen field of labor in the new world. A native of the Empire state, he was boran at Macedon Locks, West Walworth, Wayne County, New York, August 27, 1861 his parents being George Washington and Lefa Jane 9Wylie Carhartt. The ancestral line on the patenal side is traced back to Cornwall, England, where the name first appears in the Herald's office and British Museum as early as 1420, spelled variously Carhurta and Carharta. The founder of the family in the new world was Thomas Carhart, son of Anthony Carhart of Cornwall, who arrived in New York about 1689, although other works place the date as early as 1683. Thomas Carhart came to America as private secretary to Colonel Thomas Dougan, English governor of the American colonies, and remained a resident of Staten Island until 1695, after which he made his home at Woodbridge New Jersey, until his death. Of the family Professor Henry Smith Carhart was a distinguished educator who also won fame for his important accomplishments in electrical science. Discoveries which he made regarding the relation between the electro-motive force and the density of the zinc sulphate solution in a Daniell cell constituted the beginning of a new standard cell for the measurement of electro-motive force, which was at once adopted by the best laboratories of the United States as the most perfect which had been devised. The father of Hamilton Carhartt was Dr. George W. Carhartt, a distinguished physician and surgeon of Jackson, Michigan, which at the outbreak of the Civil war was appointed by Governor Austin Blair as a member of his staff.

Spending his youthful days in Jackson Michigan, Hamilton Carhartt there attended the public schools until 1873, when he became a pupil in a peparatory school at Racine Wisconsin. He made his initial step in business in 1882, becoming a member of the wholesale firm of Welling & Carhartt at Grand Rapids. His identification with Detroit dates from 1884, in which year he established a wholesale furnishing goods business under the name of Hamilton Carhartt & Company. In 1889 the business was converted into a manufacturing enterprise, devoted exclusively to apparel for workingmen. In 1905 the busines was incorporated under the style of Hamilton Carhartt, Manufacturer, Incorported and in 1910, upon a re-incorporation, the name of the Hamilton Carhartt Cotton Mills was adopted and through the intervening periods Mr. Carhartt has remained as president. Someting of the growth and development of his business connections is indicated in the fact that he is also president of the Hamilton Carhartt Cotton Mills, Limited of Toronto, of the Hamilton Carhartt mills at Atlant GA, at Dallas and Rock Hill South Carolina. He is likewise the president of the Detroit Ophir Mining and Milling Company at State Line, Utah of the Hamilton Carhartt Cotton Mills at Vancouver, B.C. of the Hamilton Cotton Mills of Liverpool England, of the Hamilton Carhartt Plantation in South Carolina and of the Mill # 2 at Carhartt South Carolina. Branch houses have been established also at Elberton, Georgia; Mobile, Alabama and San Francisco. Thus the ramifying business interests of Mr. Carhartt now cover a large part of the North American continent, the products of the mills being sent into all sections of the United States and Canada. Initiative, powers of organization and splendid executive ability are salient characteristics in his career and have been the basic elements of his constantly developing success.

On the 21st of December 1881, in Jackson Michigan, Mr. Carhartt was married to Miss Annette Welling, daughter ofStephen Alling Welling, a wholesale merchant of that city. The three children of this marriage are Hamilton, Wylie Welling and Margaret Welling, the two sons being mentioned at length on another page of this work. Mr. Carhartt maintains a awinter residence at No. 927 Fifth Avenue, at the corner of 74th St. in New York, while his summer home, "SeaView" is situated at Newport Rhode Island and he maintains a permanent home at Carhartt South Carolina.

Mr. Carhartt has never ceased to feel the deepest interest in Detroit and her welfare from the time when he initiated his present manufacturing business in the city. He is a stalwart supporter of all those interests which feature as elements in the growth, progress, prosperity and improvement of the city. He long served a a member of he public lighting commission of Detroit and for four years was its president, and he has also been the vice president of the municipal art commission of Detroit. He is well known in its club circles as a member of the Detroit and Country Clubs and he also has membership in the Auto Club of New York and the Travelers Club of Paris France. That the family is one that has long been established on the soil of the new world is indicated in the fact that he has membership with the Sons of the American Revolution, while his religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. His business interests have ever been conducted along most constructive lines and his path has never been strewn with the wreck of other men's failures. He early manifested ability to coordinate and combine seemingly diverse and unrelated interests into a unified and harmonious whole and his splendid powers of organization and direction have been the dominant elements in winning for him the position which he now occupies as an outstanding figure among the cotton manufacturers of the new world. e

The City of Detroit 1701 - 1922 Volume 3
Edited by Clarence Monroe Burton, William Stocking, Gordon K. Miller.