Louisiana AHGP

Part of the American History and Genealogy Project

David A. J. Carathers

In the State of Alabama, in 1830, there was born to Jonathan and L. (Goodwin) Carathers, a son, the subject of this sketch, being one of a family of four children. Both parents were born in Tennessee, but after residing in Alabama for some time, they, in 1845, came to Camden, Arkansas, and three years later to Claiborne Parish, Louisiana In 1801 they went to the Lone Star State, and in Tarrant County the father died in 1873, at the age of seventy-two years. He was the fourth in a family of twelve children, the father of whom, Jonathan Carathers, was born in the Emerald Isle, and he and three brothers came to America, and during the Revolutionary War served in a company under Gen. Washington, coming safely through that struggle, and afterward settling in Tennessee.

In Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, David A. J. Carathers enlisted in Company E, in 1861, but at Huntsville, Louisiana, he was captured, with the most of his company, but he succeeded in making his escape, and afterward rejoined the Confederate Army, this time enlisting in Company F, Ninth Louisiana Infantry, and served the cause he espoused faithfully and well until the close of the war. He was wounded in the battles of Sharpsburg, Winchester, and at Rappahannock Station, being captured at the last named place and sent to Washington City. Mr. Carathers was one of the few Confederate soldiers who saw the Goddess of Liberty raised. Upon the termination of the war he immediately returned to Lisbon, and this place has since been his home.

His marriage to Miss Sarah E. McCasland took place in 1869, and has resulted in the birth of eight children: Lee J., J. Clay, Benjamin P., Minnie, Julia, Mack, J. David and Laura. They are both members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and socially he belongs to the A. P. & A. M. and the I. O. O. P. He has always been an ardent Democrat, and has served as bailiff from 1867 to 1872, and has also been justice of the peace from that time up to the present. Mr. Carathers is quite well fixed, financially, and besides owning a nice residence and seventeen acres of town property he has a good plantation of 400 acres.

Biographical Sketches| Claiborne Parish

Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, Southern Publishing Company, 1890