Richard⁷ Frances Carman (Edward⁶, Benjamin⁵, Joseph⁴, Joseph³, John², John¹) was born 4 November 1801 in New York City, New York County, New York, died 13 July 1867 in Carmansville, New York County, New York. He married on 25 April 1822 in New York City to Mary Baker, born 1807, died 21 January 1867 in Florence, Italy.

RICHARD F. CARMAN, real estate owner, born in 1801, died July 13, 1867, in Carmansville, on the northern part of this island. He began life a poor boy, making packing boxes for merchants. Then, as a carpenter and builder, he gained sufficient means to enable him, after the great fire of 1835, to take contracts for rebuilding the ruined structures. When these contracts were made, labor was scarce and material was high in price, but this fact attracted so large a rush of workmen and selling agents to New York City that wages and prices depreciated and he completed his contracts at [p.131] great profit. He followed his vocation for many years and then devoted himself to real estate, founding and creating the beautiful village of Carmansville, fronting the Hudson River, on the upper part of the island. This suburb, then far north of the city, is now surrounded by a dense population, and the land is enormously valuable. His children were Richard, Charles E. and Frances Sage. - America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography, Volume I, C, Andrew Carnegie, page 131.

Richard, after making his fortune, became part of the New York City "social set" and was often mentioned in the New York Times, especially in connection with horse racing (he owned a few) and his person life became more obscure and protected from public view.  Even Mary's death, recorded in the New York Times obituaries stated neither the cause of her death or the reason she was in Italy.

Grave marker of Richard Frances Carman (photo graciously provided by Matthew Spady, webmaster, AudubonParkNY.com

 

 

"In 1902, a company was incorporated in Camden to tunnel the Delaware River to Philadelphia. The old Carman Mansion at Broadway and Federal Street was demolished to make way for Munger & Long's department store" - The Story of a bank and a community : First Camden National Bank and Trust Company, 1812-1962.

Children of Richard and Mary (Baker) Carman:

12/24/2007