Introduction

Biography

John was the son of Da­ni­el Sut­ton Car­hart and Mar­ga­ret Mar­tin. He mar­ried twice, to The­re­sa Ma­ry Mum­ford (1857) and Mol­lie C. Car­hart (1906)

He stu­died at Un­ion Se­mi­na­ry, Char­lottes­ville, New York (DD 1861); Berk­shire Me­di­cal Col­lege, Pitts­field, Mas­sa­chu­setts; and the Chi­ca­go [Il­li­nois] Col­lege of Phy­si­cians and Sur­geons (gra­du­at­ed March 13, 1883); and the New York Po­ly­clin­ic (gra­du­ate course, 1884).

He prac­ticed me­di­cine for a while in Clar­en­don, Tex­as, and Osh­kosh, Wis­con­sin, then re­lo­cat­ed to Tex­as in 1883, set­tling in Lam­pa­sas in 1884. While in Lam­pa­sas, he was a mem­ber and cor­res­pond­ing sec­re­ta­ry of the Shakes­peare Club. He moved to La­Grange, Tex­as, in May 1894.

Carhart was al­so a min­is­ter, join­ing the Troy, New York Con­fer­ence of the Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal Church be­fore age 20. Around 1871, he moved to the Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal Wis­con­sin Con­fer­ence. In 1876, he was ap­point­ed pre­sid­ing el­der of the Ap­ple­ton dis­trict, serv­ing four years.

On Oc­to­ber 31, 1880, the 34th Ses­sion of the Wis­con­sin Con­fer­ence ex­pelled Car­hart from the min­is­try and mem­ber­ship of the Met­hod­ist Epis­co­pal Church for dis­hon­es­ty, per­ju­ry, ly­ing, and im­mor­al Chris­tian con­duct.

The se­cu­lar world re­mem­bers Car­hart as an in­vent­or—he built one of the first steam-powered au­to­mo­biles. In the 1870s, he creat­ed a two-cyl­in­der steam en­gine car called “The Spark,” which had an as­ton­ish­ing speed of five miles per hour. He was re­port­ed­ly obliged to dis­man­tle the ma­chine when a horse died af­ter be­ing star­tled by its noise (Ba­lou­sek, p. 43).

In July 1878, “The Osh­kosh,” based on Car­hart’s de­sign, won a Wis­con­sin road race. Carhart al­so held two pa­tents, for a “Lam­in­at­ed Tire” (1907) and a “Ve­hi­cle-Tire” (1910).

Small wonder that one obi­tu­ary called Car­hart the fa­ther of the au­to­mo­bile (The Day Book, Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, Dec­em­ber 22, 1914, vol­ume 4, num­ber 73, last edi­tion, page 31).

Works

• Review of the Po­ems of Tor­qua­to Tas­so (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: La­dies’ Re­po­si­to­ry, 1857)
• Colpomyotomy, Dan­iels Tex­as Me­di­cal Jour­nal
• Sunny Hours: Con­sist­ing of Po­ems on Va­ri­ous Sub­jects (New York: Pud­ney & Rus­sell, print­ers, 1859)
• Poets and Po­et­ry of the He­brews (New York: Shel­don, 1865)
• Mina Hard­ing, a sto­ry of Wis­con­sin life, 1879
• Four Years on Wheels; or, Life as a Pre­sid­ing El­der (Osh­kosh, Wis­con­sin: Al­len & Hicks, print­ers, 1880)
• The Sign Rid­er, a sto­ry of ranch life in Tex­as
• The Un­known Quan­ti­ty, a no­vel
• Norma Trist (Aus­tin, Tex­as: Eu­gene von Boeck­mann, 1895)
• Under Pal­met­to and Pine (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: The Ed­it­or Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1899)