Edwin Zachariah Carpenter was born in 1835, the son of William Carpenter and Anne Heddon. Carpenter, a long-time resident of Glenville, collected historical material about local people, families, businesses, and events. Scotia historian Neil Reynolds describes Carpenter as a self-styled historian “who chose to specialize in the seamy side of life,” recording the “the anecdotes, the tall tales, the nicknames and characteristics” of the townspeople along with the basic facts of their history and genealogy.

Carpenter is perhaps best known for his self-published magazine, The American Historian and Quarterly Genealogical Record. Willis T. Hanson, in his History of Schenectady During the Revolution, investigated the authorship of The American Historian and Quarterly Genealogical Record, which was noted on the title page as being “edited by the Historical Society.” Hanson writes in 1911: “Indirectly, from the publisher, the writer has learned the history of this little magazine. There was no ‘Historical Society’ … Mr. Carpenter had no associates in his enterprise. He was sole editor, proprietor and printer, setting his own type and using as hand press which he still has.”

Neil Reynolds notes that Carpenter’s most steady work was as a printer and publisher. He also served for a time as Glenville Justice of the Peace and was involved in real estate in Glenville. After a lifetime of chronicling and collecting information about Scotia and Glenville history, Carpenter died on December 20, 1917 at the home of his niece, Mrs. H.L. Schermerhorn. He is buried in the cemetery of the First Reformed Church of Scotia.