Miles B. Carpenter

Miles B. Carpenter (1889-1985) moved to a Sussex County peanut farm from Pennsylvania in 1902. He entered the lumber business in 1912 with a planing mill and sawmill. When business slowed during World War II, he whittled figures but did not carve in earnest until the 1960s, when his watermelons, peanut men, and whimsical monsters earned him a national reputation as a folk artist. Carpenter's woodcarvings reflected the influence of Sussex County's two major industries: lumber and peanuts.