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George H. Carter left Indianapolis in the late 1800s to search for gold in California.
Instead of finding his fortune, he and partner Silas A. Lee founded a sawmill business in 1873. The entrepreneurs moved their business back to Indianapolis, and within 10 years, the sawmill became a retail lumber company.
Eventually, Lee sold his interests in the firm to the Carter family. Through the years, floods beset it and depressions hurt it, but this year, The Carter-Lee Lumber Co. Inc. will celebrate 115 years in business.
Today, about one-third of Carter-Lee's business is wholesaling lumber to other lumber companies around the state, but most of Carter-Lee's lumber goes to contractors building single-family homes, Larry Carter said.
Larry Carter, the company's president, wouldn't disclose its revenue, but he implies that the company has prospered. Carter-Lee now operates on 19 acres, up from eight, and has more than 100 employees, up from 50. Last year, the company added a 12,000-square-foot warehouse, bringing the total number of storage facilities at 1621 W. Washington St. to 10.
Wilbur Carter, grandson of the original founder, turns 90 this summer and still...