Description

Serilda Alwilda (Miller) Cartter (b. 1854 - d. 1919) born March 13, 1854, in Princeville, Peoria County, Illinois, the daughter of Jacob Leroy Miller, born 1830 in Illinois and Jane Maria (Reeves) Miller, born in Illinois.

Jacob and his brother, Sam, had come to Prescott, Arizona Territory in May, 1863 with the Walker party. Jacob had long before left his wife and three children behind in Illinois, where Jane remarried. Serilda came to Prescott, A.T. in May, 1873 and reunited with her estranged father. She moved into the Miller Valley home of Sam Miller with her father, sister Cynthia and brother Roll.

Serilda married Harley "Hal" High Cartter, Jr., who studied law under his father in Prescott and was admitted to the bar in 1873. The wedding took place on March 2, 1874, at the residence of Sam Miller in Miller Valley, Arizona. They had a son, Frank, born in July, 1877 but he died the following month. Five more children were stillborn. In the early 1880s, the Cartters informally adopted Florence (Ida Belle) Murphy (b. Skull Valley, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, c. 1878) after the deaths of her parents William C. and Julia Murphy.

Serilda was very active in church and club work. She was a member of the Prescott Dramatic Club and acted in several plays. Serilda died February 22, 1919 and was buried in the Citizens Cemetery in Prescott beside her husband.

Harley became mentally ill in 1910 and Serilda had him committed to the Territorial Asylum in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona Territory, in April. He died there in August, 1913.

Sources: findagrave.com; US Census 1880 and1900; Sharlot Hall Museum Rose Garden Honorees

For more information regarding Serilda (Miller) Cartter, please read her biography in the Rose Garden Honorees section of the SHM Library & Archives. 

Keyword : Hal Cartter, Harley High Cartter, Jacob Miller, Sam Miller, Florence Cartter, Flossie Cartter.
Staff Notes : Moved PO-1405p and PO-1451p into this folder as it is all the Cartter family members. BST 2/9/2018