Bio

Born May 1, 1941 in Coffee County, GA, Gillis Carter spent the earliest years of his life as young boy whose father, Era Carter, was on the verge of becoming successful in the turpentine business. By the time Gillis was five years old, he lived in a home just a short walk from his current home on the outskirts of Willacoochee, GA, and his father had begun hiring a fair number of African American turpentine hands to work the timber on land he leased from others. Under their father, Carter and his four brothers grew up working turpentine, and the only break Gillis would take from the line of work was the four years he spent acquiring his B. S. in Chemistry at the University of Georgia. He worked turpentine and hired countless others to work for him until 1978, when his father rightfully recognized that turpentine would no longer turn the profits it once had.

Carter’s past, though full of success in the turpentine industry, is also littered with hardship. As an adult, Carter has suffered two heart attacks, and he battles diabetes every day, a disease that cost him to lose half of his left foot to surgery. In addition to his health concerns, his four brothers have all passed away - one from cancer, another from a heart attack, and yet another from drowning - and his mother died in a house fire years ago. He makes it clear that, through all of this, he has grown very close to Jesus Christ. A warm, Christian man, Carter lives happily now with his wife and his mother-in-law, and his children and “grandbabies” live on the property adjacent to his.

Though the turpentine industry has vanished from the country, and though his primary human link to it - his father - has passed away, Carter remains more actively involved in the memory of the work than perhaps anyone in the United States. He continues to work four trees and six faces in his front yard, and one of his barns houses an elaborate collection of turpentine tools and artifacts. His goal is to remind those who may have forgotten about the industry and to educate the younger generation that may not otherwise ever learn to appreciate the livelihood of its forebears.

Found in 5 Collections and/or Records: