CENTRE LINES

The CARSON Family

This column is part of a feature series which focuses on a different Centre County family each week. Five new columns will be released each month unless some technical difficulty enters the picture.

This column's focus is on CARSON. An effort has been made to identify all persons carrying that name in the 1890 U.S. Census, using the Centre County business directory which was formed from a preliminary review of that census before the larger set of 1890 U.S. Census records was destroyed by fire. (Sadly, the postal directory does not typically provide the ages of females, but it's the best record we've got).

Two books in the Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library in Bellefonte apparently deal in part with the Carson family. They are: David A. Reed's Genealogy of William Reed & Catherine Carson thru Son David (19--); and, Kenneth Charles Reed's The Houston-Based Reeds: Descended from William and Catherine Carson Reed (Houston, Texas: 1994).

There are 13 first-name entries for Carson in John Blair Linn's History of Centre and Clinton County (1883). In addition, there are several mentions of the name in Beers' Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania (1898).

And, now, your ancestors' Carson neighbors in 1890:

BELLEFONTE Borough:

Lizzie--122 W. Linn

BOGGS Township:

George J., 13--Roland

BURNSIDE Township:

Frederick, 59, laborer--Pine Glen Mary Ella R.

CENTRE HALL Borough:

Ida

MARION Township:

Edward, 22, laborer--Bellefonte

PHILIPSBURG Borough:

Annie--10th St. William T. 14 Samuel E. 8

POTTER Township:

Kate M.--Potters Mills Joseph 18 Franklin A, 14

SPRING Township:

James S., 47, farmer--Bellefonte Margaret S. William A. 24 Clark J. 18 Sarah G. Etta Caroline Myra Eva Joanna E. John M., 60, laborer--Pleasant Gap Frances E. Minnie L. Mamie--Bellefonte