Martin California Carson

Born into slavery on J. Logan Carson’s “Pleasant Gardens” plantation, the son of Jefferson and Mahala Ervin Carson, Martin Carson became a notable churchman and educator in a racially segregated culture. He was initially educated in McDowell County schools and continued his education at the State Normal School (later to become Livingston College,) in Salisbury, NC. He began a career teaching in the segregated public schools of Burke County in 1884 and taught at the Jonesboro School in Morganton and at the Waters Academy.

Carson was a life-long member of the A.M.E. Zion Church, and a call from that church led him into a second career as an ordained minister in the Blue Ridge District. He served churches in five counties in western North Carolina: Pharr’s Chapel, Old Fort; St. Paul’s and Zion Chapel, Forest City; St. Mark’s, Asheville; Carson’s Chapel (which took his surname), Union Mills; Griffin’s Chapel, Burnsville; and Macedonia Zion, Swannanoa.

Carson’s influence in the lives of his children and grandchildren led one of his sons, John Harold Carson (1907-1980), to become a prominent Burke County educator after graduating from Johnson C. Smith University and receiving a master’s degree from Columbia University, New York. NY.