Antoine E. Cartier is President of the Cartier Lumber Company, of which George R. Cartier is Vice-President, and Warren A. Cartier Secretary and Treasurer. The specialty of the firm is lath and shingles, besides general lumber supplies.For two years our subject was Mayor of Ludington, and for two terms has served as Alderman from the Second Ward. His influence and means have been used time and again in the development of new industries and infant enterprises. Among other concerns in which he is now interested are the following: the Ashland Lumber Company, of Ashland, Wis.; the Cartier Enameling Company; the Central Package and Basket Company; the Crawford & Manistee Railroad Company, and the Citizen's Development Company, all of which organizations he is President. Of the following he is Vice-President: the Northern Michigan Transportation Company; the Ketcham Lumber Company, of Chicago; and the Ketcham Steamboat Company, of the same city.

In tracing the ancestry of the gentleman above mentioned we find that his paternal grandfather, John Baptiste Cartier, emigrated from France to Canada in early times, and during the Colonial war for independence was a soldier in the British service. He lived to the very old age of one hundred and eight years. His family numbered ten children. The maternal grandfather of our subject also reached an extreme old age, his death occurring when he was in his one hundred and seventh year. He bore the name of Alexis Courchine, and was a native of Three Rivers County, Canada. He was a man of very temperate habits, and owed to his out-door life and strong constitution his long career of usefulness. In personal appearance he was five feet, four inches in stature, and weighed about one hundred and eighty pounds. He was a devout member of the Catholic Church.

Like his father before him, John Baptiste Cartier, Jr., was a farmer. He was born at Bancoure, Canada, near Three Rivers City. For his wife he chose Miss Rosalie Courchine, a native of Borquite, Canada, and twelve sons and three daughters came to bless their union, but only five are living: Olive, Mrs. John DeMarse, of Chippewa Falls, Wis.; Ovid, of Three Rivers County, Canada; Antoine E.; Leon, of Minnesota; and Jude, of Manistee, Mich. The father died in Canada at the age of sixty-six years, and his wife, who died in 1878, was in her ninety-seventh year. Her mother also lived to be very old, dying at the age of one hundred and four years. Both she and her husband were members of the Catholic Church. The latter was in the British service in the War of 1812.

Antoine E. Cartier was born in Three Rivers County, Canada, May 16, 1836, and was brought up on a farm. His father dying when he was sixteen years old, the youth struck out into the world to make his own living. He first went to the squared-timber camp in Canada West, thence to Quebec, and in the fall of 1852 landed in Chicago. He did not long remain there, but proceeded to Manistee, where during the winter he was employed in lumbering, and in the summer time worked in a sawmill. At the end of two years he returned home on a visit, and subsequently worked for four years more as formerly. The next fifteen years he carried out contracts for separating logs for different firms in the river drives. In the mean time he bought a sawmill, which he ran in addition to his other business. It was then known as the Dempsey, Cartier & Co. Mill, but now belongs to the Manistee Lumber Company.

In 1877 Mr. Cartier and his partner, Mr. Dempsey, took a five year contract to drive logs on the river at Ludington, but at the end of two years our subject purchased the other's interest and at the same time invested with Frank Filer in the business which was known as the Cartier & Filer Lumber Company, which continued in operation until 1882. Mr. Cartier also bought half-interest in the Foster & Stanchfield Sawmill in 1879. In 1882 he purchased the Allen & Goodsell Mill, which was burned July 28, 1893.

On the 3d of December, 1859, Mr. Cartier married Eliza Ann, daughter of William S. and Mary (Kellogg) Ayers. Six sons and three daughters have been the result of their union. Rosalie became the wife of Charles W. Spear, of Wooster, Ohio, and has one child, George W. Louis A. married and is in the lumber business at Ashland, Wis. Warren A. married Catherine Dempsey, and their three children are names: Warren Raphael, Morgan J.P. and Vincent. Ida J. married W.S. Taylor, and has a little daughter, Ida Marie. George W. wedded Emma L. Gaudette. William E. married Ara May Warner, by whom he has a son, Antoine E., Jr. The other children are Deserce, Charles E. and Eliza A., the latter of whom is deceased.

Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Cartier are members of the Catholic Church, and the former is a Trustee. In political faith he is a Democrat. Besides his fine residence in Ludington, he owns extensive tracts of farm and timber land in the county.

The eldest sister of our subject was Stisele, wife of Joseph Granpre. She died in September, 1891, at the age of seventy-seven years. The eldest brother, Deserce, died at his home in Maskinonge, Canada, December 21, 1894, aged seventy-four years. Another brother, John Baptiste, a farmer and lumberman, died at St. Barthelemi, Canada, March 5, 1890, when in his sixty-eighth year.