Rev. Harlan Page Carson, D.D., was born on January 3, 1845, near Medora, Macoupin County, Illinois, to James M. and Eliza (Jane) Carson. His father, a farmer and abolitionist, lived in Illinois before moving to Kansas in 1887, where he died in 1891. Dr. Carson’s early education was in local schools, and he graduated from Blackburn University in 1870, later earning a Doctor of Divinity in 1889. Ordained in 1872, he served in various pastoral roles before moving to South Dakota in 1880. Active in church and mission work, he was also a Civil War veteran and deeply involved in educational and temperance efforts. Dr. Carson was married twice and had several children from both marriages.
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 of thirty-seven years.
Dr. Carson was reared to the sturdy discipline of the homestead farm and secured his early educational training in the common schools 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.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.