A. E. CARSON

CARSON, GREGGS

Posted By: Mona Sarratt Knight (email)
Date: 7/16/2009 at 05:08:32

Source: The History of Appanoose County, Iowa, Containing A History of the County, its Cities, Towns, etc., A Biographical Directory of Citizens, War Records of its Volunteers in the late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, History of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map of Appanoose County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, etc.; illustrated; Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878.

A. E. CARSON, farmer and stock grower, Sec. 20; P.O. Livingston; born in Cumberland Co., Va., Feb 4, 1810; at the age of 15, left that county with $2.50 in his pocket, for Rockingham Co., Va., where he taught school for three months, and left there with $1.50 cash, a good suit of clothes, and a bell-crowned stove-pipe hat; thence to Old Fort Necessity, Fayette Co., Penn., where he was clerking and teaching until 1833; thence to Mt. Pleasant, where he entered the Academy of A.O. Peterson, a celebrated divine; remained there eighteen months; thence to Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Penn.; there entered the Junion Class; thence to Greene Co., Penn., where he graduated in 1839; engaged as assistant teacher until 1842, when he married Miss Ruth B. Greggs. During 1843, commenced merchandising in Jefferson, Greene Co.; during 1845, his family, consisting of wife and three children, died; in 1853, married Miss Eliza Biddle, daughter of J. T. Biddle, a relative of J.T. Biddle, a noted banker; she was born in Washington Co., Penn., in 1823. Continued his business at Jefferson until 1854; in 1857 came to Appanoose Co., where he engaged in farming, and where he now owns 470 acres of land, valued at $30 per acre, and 227 head of stock. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Carson, whose name was Black, formed a colony in Scotland (that being his native country) for the purpose of settling in Ireland; the Irish being opposed to the invasion of their country by those people, met them at the coast and forming into line of battle, proposed to fight, but compromised by agreeing to select one of their men to fight against one selected by the colonists, the agreement being that the Irishman proving victorious, the Scotchmen would return to their country, but if the Scotch gained the victory, they were to be allowed to remain and have all the land they required. Black was chosen by the colonists as champion; his opponent being an immense Irishman, clothed in the armor of that day, breast plate, helmet and sword. Black proved victorious and killed his antagonist, and the Scots were allowed to remain. From this family of Blacks, have descended the Trumbles, Keys, Longs of Baltimore, and the Long for whom Long's Peak, Colorado, was named; from the same branch, Kit Carson and family of that name have sprung. Mr. and Mrs. Carson have six children - Melvina J., Bert W., Isaac B., Ruth G., Lizzie L., and Jennie Y. Republican; members of the Presbyterian Church for upward of forty years. Has held school offices, Township Trustee and County Supervisor.