J. C. Carson San Juan County, New Mexico

J. C. Carson, who came to San Juan County in 1877, has been one of the most prominent men of this locality for nearly thirty years. Associated with others he built an irrigating ditch at Bloomfield the first successful undertaking of this kind in the San Juan district. Mr. Carson was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1853, and in 1872 went to Colorado, spending his time largely in the vicinity of Denver. He aided in the building of the Colorado Central Railroad and discovered Carson camp in Colorado about 1880. The summer months were spent in mining in that state and the winters were passed in New Mexico from 1877. In 1884 he began the general development of land, and now has a good ranch of two hundred and forty acres, of which about sixty acres is planted in hay. In 1906 he put in four acres in peaches, and he has a bearing orchard of five acres, lie had previously experimented with peaches and had pulled out several acres of trees, but he feels now that he has an understanding of the business that will enable him to reach success in this direction, labor and experiment having brought to him the knowledge necessary for successful fruit culture in this part of the country.

His connection with public interests covers four years' service from 1892 until 1896 in the office of sheriff. In politics he is a Roosevelt Democrat. He served as captain of the militia company which was organized in 1883 to suppress Indian uprisings, and he is a Master Mason, having served for two or three terms as master of the blue lodge.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.