Carroll, B. H. (Benajah Harvey), 1843-1914

Benajah Harvey Carroll, Jr. (1874-1922), author, educator, minister, chaplain, journalist, editor, and U.S. consulate, earned degrees from Baylor University, University of Texas, and Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He was ordained a minister in Waco in 1894 and served churches in both Kentucky and Texas, and headed the department of history and political economy at Baylor for a short time. He volunteered for service in the Spanish-American War, 1898. He first served as captain and field chaplain of the First United States Volunteers, Texas Cavalry, before being appointed lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp in the Texas National Guard.

After surrendering his pastorate in 1906, Carroll worked on the editorial staff of the Houston Chronicle for eight years and then took over editing and publishing the weekly Stylus magazine in Houston, 1912-1913. However, in 1914 he served as United States consul to Venice during World War I. He earned multiple honors during this time, especially for his work with the first Red Cross war effort in Venice. Carroll also later served as consul to Naples, Italy, and Cádiz, Spain.

The author of many newspaper articles, poems, and short stories, Carroll is also credited with writing history books such as The Genesis of American Anti-Missionism (1902) and A Political History of Europe from 1815 to 1848 (1906), and editing Standard History of Houston (1912).

Carroll married Daisy Crawford in 1905. He died in 1922.

Source : Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Carroll, Benajah Harvey, Jr., http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/fca64.html (accessed July 1, 2010).

From the guide to the Carroll, Benajah Harvey, Jr. Papers 1911; 1944., 1896-1931, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)