Levi Carter - the man behind the name

Levi Carter was born on a New Hampshire farm in 1830. Levi came from a family of ten children. In 1856, Levi Carter arrived in Nebraska City and had become a carpenter. Levi was a capitalist - someone that supports free market ideology. Levi and General Isaac Coe worked together in the freight and cattle business. After his first wife, Lydia Bliss Carter, died, Levi married the daughter of his business partner General Isaac Coe - Selina Coe. Levi Carter ran a white lead smelter plant. In 1878, Carter and other investors started the Omaha White Lead Company. By 1885, the price of lead plummeted and Carter took a risky move by buying out the other owners. Levi was one of the United States' top 450 millionaires when he died in 1903. Carter White Lead Co. burned in 1890 but Carter rebuilt on a larger scale. When he died his wife gave Omaha some of his land. That land was then made into Levi Carter Park in Omaha. Levi was buried in a plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery, which is shared with his second wife and 2 year old son.

A drawing of the original Omaha White Lead Co., owned by Levi Carter.
Image from Andrea's History of the State of Nebraska.

Photo of the Carter family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery.
The three stones in the foreground are Levi, Selina, and their son - Levi.
Image by Marta Dawes.