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Lionel Fallows, son of Carter’s sister Nellie, said Roosevelt came through for the Amsterdam mayor. It was a triumvirate, Fallows said, with three Democrats in power: Carter the Amsterdam mayor, New York Governor Herbert Lehman and Roosevelt. There was federal money for the golf course, which was named for Carter, and money for other Amsterdam projects.
Fallows said Carter could have done more but political opponents sometimes stymied the mayor. Arthur Carter was born in 1897 in Kidderminster, England, a center of the English carpet trade that was a source of carpet-savvy immigrants who helped build Amsterdam’s leading industry. The youngest of several children, he came to America when he was nine and lived with his family on Lefferts Street in the East End.
Carter served in the U.S. Army in World War I.
He never took to carpet making, working instead in the wholesale grocery business. In 1923, he married Lorraine Conrad. They did not have children.
Fallows said he did not know if his favorite uncle went beyond the eighth grade in school but said Carter took correspondence courses. The year after his marriage, Carter started working for the State Comptroller’s Office in Albany as an auditor and got to know Roosevelt who became New York governor Carter ran unsuccessfully for office in Amsterdam three times. Fallows said his uncle was terrified at first by public speaking but through practice became an expert at holding an audience.
In 1933, Carter was elected mayor, a year after Franklin Roosevelt was elected President. Carter was re-elected five times, the last time in 1941. He was also Democratic Party chairman, then a powerful position in Montgomery County.
In 1943, Carter left the mayor’s job in Amsterdam for the military. A temporary mayor, John Klubakowski, served until Wilbur H. Lynch was elected and then sworn into office as Amsterdam mayor in 1944.
Awarded the rank of major, Carter served as military mayor of Bologna, Italy, during the Allied occupation. He learned Italian on the job. When he returned to America, Carter went into broadcasting.
He did a program on WSNY radio in Schenectady called Carter’s Comments. In 1948, Carter was the principal founder of Community Service Broadcasting Corporation and radio station WCSS in Amsterdam. Carter was station president until 1953.
He later worked in the financial field. In 1963, Carter was prevailed upon by the Democratic Party to oppose Republican Marcus Breier in a race for Amsterdam mayor. Breier won.
Carter won more elections than any other Amsterdam mayor, although he did not serve the longest. That distinction goes to John Gomulka who served three consecutive four-year terms starting in 1968 and Mario Villa, who served eight years starting in 1980 and a separate four-year term beginning in 1992. According to Fallows, Carter enjoyed strong support among Amsterdam’s Polish immigrants in the Fourth Ward and counted Reid Hill businessman Michael Wytrwal as one of his strongest supporters.
Arthur Carter died on August 29, 1983 at age 86. He and his wife lived at 4 Beacon Avenue on Market Hill. He was a member, treasurer and vestryman at St.
Ann’s Episcopal Church for more than 25 years. He is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery, as his wife was Roman Catholic.
A member of Masonic Lodge 829 for 64 years, Carter belonged to the Amsterdam Elks Lodge for 50 years. He was past commander of the James T. Bergen American Legion Post.
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