Samuel Price Carson (1798 - 1838)

Born 22 Jan 1798 in Pleasant Gardens, Burke, North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah Catherine Wilson — married 10 May 1831 in Rutherford County, North Carolina, United States

Descendants

Died 2 Nov 1838 at age 40 in Hot Spring, Arkansas, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Connie Bradshaw [send private message]

Biography

Moffitt Sinclair Henderson, a Marion native and great granddaughter of Colonel John Carson, has written a biographic novel which spans the life of her great uncle, Samuel Price Carson, from 1826 until his death at Hot Springs, Arkansas November 2, 1838. The book is titled "A Long, Long Day for November" and indicates the long day, Nov 5, 1827, of the duel between Samuel Carson and Dr. Robert Brank Vance at Saluda Gap, South Carolina. Her book won the Thomas Wolfe award in 1972.

Rutherford County Marriage Bonds # 000132804: Samuel P. Carson married Sarah Catharine Wilson, 10 May 1831, bondsman Thomas Dews Jr.

From History of McDowell County, page 42:

"During the two terms Samuel Carson served as U.S. Congressman gold mining was of major importance in North Carolina. He made several efforts to have a mint established in the state. He was unsuccessful during his term of office in having the bill enacted and because of his stand on the Nullification Act was defeated in the next election. However, he had laid the groundwork for a mint in North Carolina and by Act of Congress March 3, 1835 a U.S Mint was established in Charlotte. In a large measure the achievement was due to Carson's initial efforts.

Samuel Price Carson married Catharine Wilson of Brentwood, Tennessee in 1831. After his failure to be re-elected as Congressman he served as a member of the North Carolina Legislature. Later he and his family and servants made the long and arduous trip to Texas where they settled. He was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, which freed it from Mexico in 1836, and served as the first Secretary of State of the new republic.

For a decade or more before his death Samuel Carson suffered from ill health, which today would probably be diagnosed as tuberculosis. A few months prior to his death he and his family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas where he died Novemeber 2, 1838.

After Carson's death his widow and two daughters, Emily and Rachel Rebecca, returned to North Carolina. Later the widow married Sam's younger brother, William, and they lived in the large brick house on Lake Tahoma Road in Pleasant Gardens which is now owned by Mrs. G.W. Chapman and her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Walker."

Burke County Heritage, 1981, page 130-131, contains a sketch of Samuel Price Carson (159) which covers his political career in some depth. It indicated that at age 18 he was sent to his older half brother, Jospeh McDowell Carson for education. This brother lived in Rutherford County on the "Green River" plantation which is now in Polk County, just across the Rutherford County line near the town of Rutherfordton. Col. John Carson agreed to help his son finance his trip to Texas. When the preparations were completed, it made up a long caravan. After a long hard journey, they made it to the Red River Valley. This source indicates that he was the Secretary of the Treasury for Texas which was incorrect.

From "Handbook of Texas Online: CARSON, SAMUEL PRICE" (http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/CC/fca67.html)

"CARSON, SAMUEL PRICE (1798-1838). Samuel Price Carson, planter and lawmaker, son of John and Mary (Moffitt) Carson, was born at Pleasant Gardens, North Carolina, on January 22, 1798. The elder Carson was a "man of means and an iron will" who represented Burke County in the North Carolina General Assembly for many years. Samuel Carson was educated in the "old Field school" until age nineteen, when his brother, Joseph McDowell Carson, began teaching him grammar and directing a course of reading to prepare him for a political career. As a young man Carson also attended camp meetings with his Methodist mother and was often called upon to lead congregational singing.

In 1822 he was elected to the North Carolina Senate. Two years later he was chosen to the first of his four terms (1825-33) as a member of the United States House of Representatives, where he became a close friend of David Crockett. Carson was defeated in 1833 because he had supported John C. Calhoun's nullification meeting in spite of his constituents' disapproval. He was reelected to the North Carolina Senate in 1834 and was selected as a delegate to the North Carolina Constitutional Convention in 1835. His failing health prompted him to move to a new home in Mississippi. In a very short time, however, he moved on to Lafayette (now Miller) County, Arkansas, an area then claimed by both Texas and Arkansas. On February 1, 1836, he was elected one of five delegates to represent Pecan Point and its vicinity at the Convention of 1836. On March 10 he reached Washington-on-the-Brazos and immediately signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.

With regard to legislative and constitution-drafting experience, Carson was the outstanding member of the convention. On March 17 he was nominated, along with David G. Burnet, for president ad interim of the Republic of Texas, but he was defeated by a vote of 29 to 23. Thereupon Carson was elected secretary of state, an office he held only a few months. On April 1, 1836, President Burnet sent him to Washington to help George C. Childress and Robert Hamiltonq secure financial and other aid for the infant republic. In May, Burnet wrote Carson asking him to resign because of his poor health, but Carson evidently did not receive the letter. When Carson read in a June newspaper that two other men were the only authorized agents for Texas, he retired in disgust to his Arkansas home.

On May 10, 1831, he married Catherine Wilson, daughter of James and Rebecca Wilson of Burke County, North Carolina. The couple had a daughter. They also adopted Carson's illegitimate daughter, Emily, whose mother was Emma Trout, a North Carolina neighbor of Carson's. Carson died on November 2, 1838, at Hot Springs and was buried there in the United States government cemetery. Carson County, Texas, is named in his honor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Michael R. Hill, The Carson House of Marion, North Carolina (MS, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin, 1982). Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence (Salado, Texas: Anson Jones, 1944; rpt. 1959). Rupert N. Richardson, "Framing the Constitution of the Republic of Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 31 (January 1928). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).

Joe E. Ericson "

On 10 May 2005, visited Texas State Archives in Austin, Texas.

Obtained a copy of the original Texas Declaration of Independence dated 2 March 1836 which was signed by Sam P. Carson at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

Obtained copies of four letters that he sent to David G. Barnett between 14 April 1836 and 28 Nov 1836. He was in Natchitoches, Nashville, Philadelphia, Tulaski County, Arkansas. These letters conveyed his movements to Washington City and back to White Sulpher Springs, His health was very poor and he was bedridden many times during this period.

Obtained copy of Mrs. Catherine Carson's, widow of Samuel P. Carson, Petition for Land No. 49 PSC No. 2, in which she is requesting one league and labor of land for his citizenship of the Republic of Texas. Apparently written and approved in 1856. She also indicates that there was one daughter born of this marriage and that he arrived in Texas in 1835 and located on the Red River.

Obtained copy of The Quarterly of Texas State Historical Association, Volume VIII, pages 263 to 266, published in 1905, which contained an article on Samuel Price Carson's short life and political career written by Z.T. Fulmore.

From http://www.usconstitution.com/TexasDeclarationofIndependence.htm:

"With very little time to accomplish its mission, delegates of Convention of 1836 wrote and adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence, prepared a Constitution for the newly formed Republic, and organized an an interim government. These actions were accomplished amid almost daily reports of the invasion on Texas soil by Mexico, and the collapse of the Alamo and destruction of its defenders.

The ad interim government that was created by the delegates took office at the close of the convention, and served until the following October, when general elections could be held. Officers of the newly formed Republic included:

David G. Burnet, President

Lorenzo de Zavala, Vice-president

Samuel P. Carson, Secretary of State

Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War

Bailey Hardeman, Secretary of Treasury

David Thomas, Attorney General

With their mission accomplished, the delegates and the newly formed government of the Republic of Texas adjourned in haste during the early morning hours of March 17, following news of the approach of Santa Anna and the Mexican army".

From http://users.ev1.net/~gpmoran/RvTx6.htm:

"The news of the fall of the Alamo and the subsequent Runaway Scrape reached the delegates at Washington-on-the Brazos. The delegates hurried to conclude their business. After an all night session that ended on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, 1836, David G. Burnet, of Irish ancestry on his mother's side and Scottish ancestry on his father's side, was elected Ad-Interim President of Texas.

Samuel Price Carson, who was also nominated to be President, lost to Burnet by only 6 votes. Carson's father was born in Fermanagh, Ireland, his mother was Mary Moffit McDowell. Carson's father, Col. John Carson arranged for the Irish lawyer, Francis Scott Key, who wrote our national anthem, to defend Sam Houston in the U.S. Congress. Houston, as a Representative from Tennessee, tended to be over animated in his discussions on the House floor, especially if his hand was near an opponent. Samuel P. Carson, previously a U.S. Congressman (from Burke County) and U.S. Senator from North Carolina, graciously consented to be the Secretary of State of the newly declared Republic of Texas. He went on to commission the Great Seal of the Republic.

The fact that Carson felt his Irish heritage is underscored in a book written by Moffitt Sinclair Henderson, A Long Long Day in November. In the book, Henderson writes of a young Carson singing an old Irish folk song:

O Irishman forget the past

Whack fol the diddle lol the dido day

And think of the day that is coming fast,

Whack fol the diddle lol the dido day

When we shall all be civilized,

Neat and clean and well advised.

O won't Mother England be surprised,

Whack fol the diddle lol the dido day."

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Price_Carson

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Carson-601 created through the import of John Hazzard Carson.ged on Jul 18, 2011 by Connie Bradshaw. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Connie and others.