Thomas Benton Carter was born in Johnson's Point, Kaufman County, Texas on June 22, 1868.  He was the son of James Matthew "Matt" Carter, an early Kaufman pioneer, and Eliza Simpson.

     Tom was always a serious-minded, studious child and highly intelligent for his age.  When his brother Hiram Coleman died in 1872 of typhoid fever, Tom was deeply impressed by the efforts of the doctors tending his brother, and evidently made up his mind at an early age to become a physician.

     As a boy of ten he was studying under Dr. Thomas Coke Glass, who had a medical practice in Johnson's Point and lived within walking distance of the Carter home.  Tom assisted Dr. Glass and went with him while he was making his rounds, which covered some fifty square miles.  His father's journal states that the boy refused to work their farm and that Tom had informed him he had better things to do with his time.  Matt and Eliza Carter would not see their son for as long as two weeks at a time while he was out making rounds with Dr. Glass and were eager listeners when Tom returned home with the stories of treating ill and injured humans and animals.

     As soon as he was old enough to seek gainful employment as a clerk in the mercantiles of Kaufman and Terrell, Tom worked every chance he could to earn money for medical school.  He finished his undergraduate schooling at Techuana University and entered medical school at the age of seventeen at Louisville College of Medicine in Kentucky.  He received his medical degree in 1889, and his father documented in his journal as that being "the proudest day of my life".

     Matt Carter died Decemebr 21, 1891.  While settling his father's estate Tom worked with several doctors in Kaufman and Van Zandt counties and after two years decided to specialize as a Surgeon.  In 1895 he moved to Hill County Texas to be near a doctor who was innovative in surgical procedures, and also to be near a young woman named Armintia Lambeth, whom he had met and grown fond of.

     For two years Tom resided in a boarding house in Abbott, Texas while practicing medicine and courting Miss Lambeth.  He had started his own practice and had plans of marrying, however his plans never saw fruition, as in early 1897 Tom met a man who would become his patient and alter his life forever.

     Charles Russell was a farmer who lived in Hill County and had seen Tom Carter on a few occasions for what other doctors believed was consumption, yet Russell refused to believe was that serious and called "my coughing fits".  Russell was prescribed a medication for the continual shortness of breath and cough by Tom Carter and he became addicted to it.  After Tom realized Russell was abusing the use of the addictive medication, he refused to give Russell any more of it, at which time Russell refused to pay on his account with Tom.  Russell was told to seek medical treatment elsewhere, which he did for a few months, yet for some unknown reason the two came together in the main street of Abbott near noon on September 15, 1897, and both men ended up dead.

The following newspaper stories expound on the details.

From the Terrell Tribune, Thursday, Sept. 18, 1897-

Hillsboro, Hill Co., Tex., Sept 15.-"News reached here at 1:20 o'clock this afternoon of a double killing at Abbott.  Dr. Thomas B. Carter of Kaufman County and Charley Russell of Hill County, who had had a business disagreement, met on the streets of Abbott. They became involved in a difficulty, in which Carter shot Russell through the stomach.  As Russell fell he drew his pistol and shot Carter through the liver.  Both of them died within a few minutes.  Dr. Carter, well known as 'Tom Carter' in Terrell, was raised near this place and clerked in some of the stores in Terrell for several years, leaving Terrell to go off to study medicine.  His remains arrived in Terrell Thursday morning on the 11:30 a.m. train and taken to College Mound for interment."

From the newspaper in Waco TX-

" Dr. TOM CARTER KILLED"

 The following tells of a killing at Abbott in Hill County on Wednesday, Sept 15., The particulars were received there this afternoon of a deadly affray in which Dr. Thomas B. Carter and Charles C. Russell were slain.  The tragedy occurred at Abbott, Hill County.  Dr. Carter who was a prominent physician, met C.C. Russell, a farmer and cattle man, in the main street of Abbott at noon.  The two men were excited over a business matter between them and harsh words were heard followed by shots.  Both Dr. Carter and Mr. Russell were armed with revolvers, and many eye-witnesses say they exchanged shots with great rapidity.  Mr. Russell was shot in the breast and Dr. Carter in the bowels.  They died nearly at the same time.  Both were held in high esteem at Abbott.  Friends, hearing of the fracas, rushed to the scene too late to prevent the tragedy.  The two faced each other, uttered a few angry words and drew at the same time.  When friends reached the spot both were on the ground bleeding and dying of the bullet wounds they had inflicted on each other."

Obituaries on Thomas' death: Kaufman Sun, Friday, Sept. 17, 1897-

"Tax Collector Carter received a message Wednesday evening announcing that his cousin, Dr. Tom Carter, had just been killed at Abbott, Hill County.  Dr. Carter and a farmer named Russell had fallen out over some business matter and fought on the streets with pistols. Both were killed."

     In the days following the shooting, witnesses testified that Russell was under the influence of either drink or medication when he first called out to Tom Carter before the shooting.  One witness told the sheriff that Tom Carter had tried to pacify the man and attempted to walk away from him, but that Russell then made unsavory remarks about Miss Lambeth, which angered Tom.

     Thomas Benton Carter was buried at College Mound Cemetery beside his father and the brother who had been his inspiration to become a physician.