Gordon Carpenter was the son of William Enoch Carpenter & Parlee Gordon. Parlee Gordon had come to Texas from Illinois in a wagon train when she was about 10yrs old. Gordon Carpenter's father died in 1907 when he was about 3yrs old. Parlee's brother, John Gordon, helped her and the children with the farming. They raised cotton for a money crop and grain for livestock feed. Parlee put in a big garden to supply food for the table. A few years later, Parlee Carpenter and brother John Gordon moved to Big Spring TX where their brother lived. The family farmed near Big Spring but there was a crop failure due to drought. Parlee told her grandchildren they lived in a dugout most of the time for the dust storms were so severe. She moved her family back to Arcadia. Later she met and married George Halveck. He and his family immigrated from France around 1900.
Gordon Carpenter worked as a farm hand for various families in the community. He and his young friend went to west Texas to pick cotton to make extra money to buy a team of horses to set up a farming operation for himself. In 1925 Gordon Carpenter married Leona Goodell.
Gordon and Leona started out farming but Gordon started working on the country roads for J.C. Gibbs in the summer of 1925. Gordon continued working in road construction until he retired in 1969. Waylon Carpenter opened his own architectural firm in Houston in the early seventies. He also did drafting work for an oil company.
~ Leona Carpenter

Note: Gordon Carpenter (1866-1950) is the son of William Enoch Carpenter & Anna Parallie Gordon and the grandson of James Bolton Gordon & Malinda Jane Abney.