William Thomas Carpenter

William Thomas 'Will Tom' Carpenter (November 16, 1854, in Johnson County, Missouri – March 30, 1933), the youngest son of James and Cynthia (Johnson) Carpenter, was a legendary cowman who authored a book about his experiences.

[1] He was descended from a noteworthy Swiss-American family whose surname was Zimmermann, anglicized to Carpenter in anglophone North America.

The emigrant ancestor, Will Tom's great-great-grandfather, George Carpenter, enlisted in the First Virginia Regiment at the outbreak of the American Revolution and died in service of wounds received in the Battle of Brandywine.

[1] He married late in 1875 or early in 1876 in Missouri to Mattie Christenson, who was born August 28, 1859, at Copenhagen, Denmark; she was 16 years old.

[3] After his retirement from "cowboying," they settled on their ranch west of the Pecos in Terrell County, Texas.