E. W. Carpenter sold out the Avon water-power and store and returned to Beloit.

The evidence

• “Carpenter went to New Orleans, and opened a commission house there, for the sale of the flour and the general produce which the townsmen shipped to that place; he continued there for ten months, when, fin account of the sickness of his son, James M., he sold out the business in New Orleans and returned to Evansville, after shipping on board the ship Noble, for Boston, 2,600 barrels of flour and about 2,000 bushels of corn ; he went to Boston, disposed of his shipment and returned to Evansville, where, in connection with Oliver Ladd, he started a dry-goods jobbing house, which they carried on for two years, during which time they made about $21,000. About the year 1845, he weot to Galena, 111., and engaged in the dry-goods and boot and shoe business, and, in about six months, on account of sickness in his family, boxed up his goods and shipped them to Beloit, Wis., where he opened a dry-goods, boot and shoe and grocery store; this business he carried on for about three years, and, in 1849, he went to Cambridge, Dane Co., and bouglit a town site and mill property, built a grist and saw mill, and ran them for two years and a half, when he sold them out; in 1851, he bought another town”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/18-bios-beloit.md, PDF p. 735 / book p. 739

  Butterfield, C. W., et al. The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871585.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources

• “Later he sold out this line and returned to Evansville, and in company with Oliver Ladd engaged in the wholesale dry goods jobbing, in which they were successful. His first appearance in Beloit business circles was in 1845, when he engaged in general merchandising on a large scale for three years, removing in 1849 to Cambridge, Dane county, where he again engaged in milling, owning the town site and several mills; sold out here in 1851 and bought a town site in Avon township and 3,000 acres of land and opened a large store and constructed a water power plant, but in 1852 sold out here and returned to Beloit to establish his permanent home. Starting with a general store, he continued in this for one year, then sold out to Keys & White, and in 1854 engaged in banking for three years, when he again sold and returned to Evansville, Ind., and was interested in many different enterprises until 1866, when he again entered into the mercantile trade in Beloit, opening three different stores under the firm name of Carpenter & Greene.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34a-biographical-1.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 306 / book p. 804

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources