Charles Carson

     Charles Carson was born on 22 October 1761.^1,2,3 He married Rachel Clark, daughter of William Clark, on 5 June 1787.³ He died on 5 October 1816 in Posey County, Indiana, at age 54.^1,3,2 He was buried in Dixon Graveyard, Marrs township, West Franklin, Posey County, Indiana.^3,2,4
     
     Charles Carson served five years in the American Revolution and his deposition is on file at the Posey County Courthouse. The inscription on his gravestone also attests to the length of service. Charles was fourteen when the war began and was approaching his twenty-second birthday when the final Treaty of Paris was signed on 3 September 1783 (ratified by the Continental Congress on 14 January 1784). Therefore, he was no older than seventeen when he enlisted. By some accounts, he served from Virginia, but supporting evidence is needed.

     The first known Carson residence was in New Castle County, Delaware, where Charles and Rachel's first three children were born between the years 1788 and 1791. On 22 November 1793, they left New Castle County and moved to Virginia. Five and a half months later, they buried daughter Jane in Shenandoah County, and no later than 29 October 1796, they were in Washington County, Virginia, where they bought six acres of land near Abingdon, an historic town nestled in the rolling mountains of Southwest Virginia between the Appalachians and Blue Ridge. Founded in 1778 and originally known as Wolf Hills, the town was a refueling point for early travelers moving into Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and the Carolinas. Not far to the west lay the Cumberland Gap, a narrow V in the granite wall of the Appalachian Mountain range. The Wilderness Road, blazed by Daniel Boone in 1775, led pioneers through the Gap and into Kentucky. By 1800 it was being used for transportation and commerce, both east and west. The Carsons' move from Delaware to Southwest Virginia, whether accomplished all at once or in stages, was probably by way of the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road to Big Lick (Roanoke), then southwest on the Wilderness Road to Abingdon.

     There was in Abingdon at the same time as Charles Carson, a Charles Stewart Carson. Both men appear in the deed records a number of times beginning in 1796 when "Chas. S. Carson" witnessed the deed for the aforementioned six acres bought by Charles. Charles S. had an uncle Charles Carson who may be the same as the subject of this sketch. Charles S. Carson never married. He arrived in Washington County about 1794 from "the head of Elk, or Elkton, Cecil Co., Md." Cecil County, Maryland, and New Castle County, Delaware, are neighboring counties. Charles Stewart's parents were James Carson Jr. and a Miss Stewart. James Carson Jr. was the son of James Sr. and Nancy Buchanan.⁵ Therefore, if our Charles was the uncle, he was a brother to James Jr. and son of James Sr. and Nancy. This seems the most promising lead yet to the identity of Charles' parents. However, in Cecil County, there is a marriage record for an unidentified Carson and Mary Creswell. Considering that Charles and Rachel named a son Criswell, this can not be ignored.

     Sometime after the birth of son Criswell in Washington County, on 22 Apr 1805, and before 1808, the Carsons joined the thousands of other settlers streaming into the American West looking for cheap land and a better life. Though it can't be said exactly how they reached Indiana Territory, from Abingdon the logical route was to follow the Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap, and on to Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), then by flatboat down the Ohio River. The flatboat was the cheapest of the many types of boats used and became the standard conveyance for families moving west. All of the boats in this period were hand-powered, with poles or oars for steering, and usually floated with the current. They were not intended for round trips since the settlers used them only to get to their new homes and then broke them up for the lumber.

     Whether by destination or chance, the Carsons settled in an area that in 1814 became Posey County located at the extreme southwestern tip of Indiana bounded by the Wabash River on the west and the Ohio River on the south. There Charles was enumerated in the 1807 territorial census of Knox County, parent of Warrick, parent of Posey, and he appears in the records of all three counties. They lived in Marrs township “four miles north of the Diamond Island."