Lt. Col. Solon A. Carter (1837 - 1918)
Born Leominster (MA)
State Treasurer 1872 - 1874, 1875 - 1913.
Portrait by Marceau, c. 1913

Carter attended public schools in Leominster, then headed north to Keene (NH) as Superintendent of the Gas Light Company. He was at Keene 1859 - 1862, when he went into the army as Captain of Company G, 14th New Hampshire Volunteers. Carter was commissioned Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers, and served on the staff of Brigadier General Edward W. Hincks, and then on the staff of Brig. Gen. Charles J. Paine. He commanded "a division of colored troops, Army of the Potomac. Later...he was brevetted Major and Lieutenant Colonel." [American Series of Popular Biographies, New Hampshire Edition (Boston, 1902), p. 118.]

Carter returned to Keene after the war, to clerk in a furniture store. In 1872 he was elected Treasurer of New Hampshire, and he held that post for 40 years (to 1913), excepting 1874. Carter was a thirty-third degree Mason and Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of the Knights Templar in New Hampshire (1875). He served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire in Manchester, 1878 - 1879.

Location: First Floor, State House, Room 103