William Carter was born on May 15, 1853, in Pennsylvania to Grayson Carter and Cassandra Smith. His father was a coal miner and shoemaker who owned $150 of real estate and $200 of personal property. Carter grew up and attended school in Millsboro, Pennsylvania. He married Amy Bennett in the 1870s, and they had at least five children: Eliza, born around 1878; Mary, born around 1882; William, born around 1885; Eva, born around 1888; and Charles, born around 1894.
They settled in Luzerne, Pennsylvania, and Carter worked as a laborer. By 1900, they were living in East Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and he was earning a living as a coal miner. His wife died sometime before 1920, and Carter passed away of “cancer of [the] bladder” in East Bethlehem on April 24, 1929.