Mini Bios of People of Scots Descent
David James Carson, M. D. Biography

Dr. David James Carson, a successful medical practitioner of Faulkton, was born at Ottawa, Canada, November 16, 1866, his parents being Archibald and Charlotte (Gehan) Carson, the former born in Ireland about 1820 and the latter in Scotland about 1828. They became farming people of Canada but never removed to the United States. 

Dr. Carson attended school in Canada, where he mastered the general branches of learning, and in preparation for a professional career entered the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in the class of 1894. He also attended other medical schools and did hospital work, spending some time in the general hospital at Bridgeport, Connecticut, while for three months he was a student in Tulane University at New Orleans, Louisiana. His broad study and early hospital experience well qualified him to enter upon the private practice of medicine. His professional course, however, did not immediately follow his public-school training, for in the meantime he had provided for his own support, beginning work at the age of fifteen years in the employ of a railroad company. He also taught school for a number of terms before he left Canada and came to the United States. In 1888 he traveled through Montana, working for others, and in 1890 he returned to the east to take up the study of medicine, to which he devoted the years of 1891, 1892, 1893 and 1894. Having completed his course in the Jefferson Medical College, he spent a number of years in hospital work in the eastern states, gaining the broad experience and varied practice that only hospital work can bring. In 1897 he arrived in South Dakota, settling in Faulkton, where he practiced for three years. He then returned to Michigan, where he followed his profession until 1906, when he once more located in Faulkton, where be has since remained in general practice. He is also a landowner and operates a large farm near the town devoted to the cultivation of cereals best adapted to soil and climate and also to stock-raising. The major portion of his time and attention, however, is given to his practice, which was increasing so rapidly that when Dr. L. J. Cook of Chicago came to Faulkton he was admitted to a partnership by Dr. Carson. The latter is now a member of the South Dakota State Medical Society and also of the American Medical Association. 

On the 2d of July, 1910, Dr. Carson was united in marriage to Miss Ida Knapp, a native of Bay City, Michigan, and a daughter of William Knapp. Mr. Knapp still survives, having now attained the age of eighty years. 

In politics Dr. Carson is a democrat but has never aspired to office and in fact has refused to accept political positions. He is a member of the presbyterian church and is a well known Mason, holding membership in the lodge and chapter at Faulkton, the Knight Templar commandery at Redfield and in the Mystic Shrine at Aberdeen. In his practice he finds ample opportunity to exemplify the principles of the craft and again and again he extends a helping hand where it is needed. He has never regarded lightly his obligations to his fellows nor the work of his profession and is deeply interested in everything which tends to bring to man the key to the complex mystery which we call life.