Rev. Harlan Page Carson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 872-873 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	REV. HARLAN PAGE CARSON, D. D., was born on a farm near Medora, 
Macoupin county, Illinois, January 3, 1845, being a son of James M. and 
Eliza (Jane) Carson, the lineage on the paternal side being traced back 
to Scotch-Irish origin, and on the maternal side to the Holland Dutch. 
The father of the subject was a farmer by vocation and continued to 
reside in Illinois from 1834 to 1887, his death occurring near 
Belleville, Kansas, in 1891, he having removed there four years 
previous. He was a strong abolitionist and a conscientious and 
insistent advocate of temperance. The paternal grandfather of the 
Doctor was a successful teacher in North Carolina, and the mother of 
the subject likewise engaged in teaching before her marriage, her death 
occurring when he was a lad of seven years. Her grandfather was a 
patriot soldier in the war of the Revolution, being a member of a New 
Jersey regiment and taking part in the battle of Princeton, his widow 
being accorded a pension after his death. The father of the Doctor was 
an elder in the Presbyterian church, and his wife clung to her 
ancestral faith, being a member of the Dutch Reformed church, both 
being. earnest and devoted Christians and exemplifying their faith in 
their daily walk and conversation. James M. Carson was seventy-five 
years of age at the time of his demise, while his wife passed away at 
the age thirty-seven years.  

	Dr. Carson was reared to the sturdy discipline of the homestead 
farm and secured his early educational training in the common school of 
his native county. In 1863 he was matriculated in Blackburn University, 
at Carlinville Illinois, where he was graduated in 1870, receiving the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts, while the master's degree was conferred 
upon him three years later by the same institution. In 1889 his alma 
mater gave further evidence of appreciation of his ability and services 
by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In this 
institution he completed both the classical and divinity courses, and 
he was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian church in 1872. He 
worked his way through college, securing the requisite funds by 
teaching and other such work as came to hand. He was for one year 
principal of the public schools of Whitehall, Illinois, and then took 
up the active work of the ministry. He held pastoral charge of the 
Presbyterian church at Hardin, Illinois, for more than eight years, was 
thereafter pastor of the church at Taylorville, that state, for one 
year., and in May, 1880, he came to South Dakota and assumed the 
pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Scotland, over which he 
continued to preside ,for more than eight years. Since resigning this 
pastorate Dr. Carson has served consecutively as superintendent of home 
missions for this state, in which connection it is scarcely necessary 
to say that he has proved a vitalizing and amplifying power in the 
promotion of the work assigned to his care. At the time of the war of 
the Rebellion the Doctor enlisted as a private in the One Hundred and 
Thirty-third Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, remaining in the 
service for his term of one hundred days. He has been unabating in his 
zeal for the advancement of church work in South Dakota, and his 
influence has permeated all departments of the same. He aided 
materially in the founding and operating of Pierre University and 
Scotland Academy until they were merged into Huron College; he was the 
editor and publisher of the Presbyterian Chronicler, the church monthly 
of the state, for five years, at the expiration of which it was sold to 
the publishers of a church paper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has been 
indefatigable in his opposition to the liquor traffic; and he has ever 
aimed to be tolerant in his views. Though he is liberal in his views he 
is not lacking in conservatism, is firm in his convictions, in which he 
is ever found amply fortified, and in the essentials of the religion of 
the Master he serves he will never show the slightest flexibility or 
deviation. He is genial, benevolent and always helpful; earnest and 
animated as a public speaker, his every utterance ringing true and 
bespeaking confidence, sincerity and conviction. Dr. Carson has 
organized several churches and has taken the leadership in the erection 
of four different church edifices. He has been president of the Bon 
Homme County Bible Society since 1883, was for eight years stated clerk 
of the presbytery of South Dakota, has been stated clerk of the synod 
of the state from the time of its organization, in 1884, and he is a 
member of the board of directors of the Omaha Theological Seminary, as 
well as of the directors of Huron College. It may be said that the 
Doctor is taking a particularly active part in the establishing of the 
Omaha Seminary upon a proper basis, the high function of the 
institution being to offer proper accommodations for the training of 
ministers of the gospel for work in South Dakota and other sections 
normally tributary to the city of Omaha. The Doctor is an independent 
Republican in his political proclivities, and he is essentially public 
spirited and most loyal to the state in which he is living and laboring 
to so goodly ends.  

	On the 8th of October, 1873, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. 
Carson to Miss Elizabeth Holliday, daughter of Arthur D. Holliday, of 
Virden, Illinois, and she was summoned into eternal rest, at her home 
in Scotland, South Dakota, on the 4th of July, 1886, being survived by 
her two children, Rollin G., who was born September 25, 1874, and 
Elizabeth, born January 3, 1877. On the 19th of June, 1888, the Doctor 
consummated a second marriage, being then united to Mrs. Sarah (Child) 
Keating, of Hardin, Illinois, widow of William Keating, Esq., to whom 
she bore one daughter, Helen S., who remains in the home of her 
stepfather. Mrs. Sarah Carson passed to the life eternal on the 19th of 
June, 1896, in Hardin, Illinois. By her union to Dr. Carson was born 
one child, Harriet I., the date of whose nativity was February 1, 1892.