Rev. John William Carson, 1855-1940

1940 Yearbook 

of the Iowa-Des Moines Annual Conference

Methodist Church

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Rev. John William Carson

Served the Jerome Methodist Church 1901-1902

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  John William Carson, son of William T. and Sarah Carson, was born in Davis county, Iowa, August 26, 1855. At twenty years of age he was converted at Mt. Moriah, a Cumberland Presbyterian church, under Rev. Lester. He later united with the Methodist Episcopal church. He was licensed to preach in 1880. His education was mostly at Lincoln University, Lincoln, Illinois, but he received his bachelors' degree from Iowa Wesleyan at Mt. Pleasant in 1917.

  He was received on trail in 1890, at Grinnell, and admitted into full membership, in September, 1892, at Washington, Iowa, and ordained deacon by Bishop Edward G. Andrews, and finishing his Course of Study he was ordained Elder, September 16, 1894, at Fairfield, by Bishop Charles H. Fowler. He spent thirty years serving in the Iowa Conference, serving Salina, Troy, Columbus, Salem, Cantril, Mystic, Keosauqua, Unionville, Farmington, Wayland, Fairfield circuit, and Fremont. In 1920, he took a leave of absence and supplied for ten years, in the Southern California Conference. In 1921 he was made a retired member, but always kept active in prayer meeting attendance and as a worker in Sunday school. He endeavored to live daily so as to "have an abundant entrance into that city whose builder and maker is God."

  March 12, 1884, at Centerville, he married to Mary Retta Biddle; two daughters, Ruth and Viola, and a son, Edgar, were the fruit of their domestic life. He passed away, at home, in Santa Ana, California, January 25, 1940.