Biography:

Dr. Sarah Jane Carson (a.k.a. Jennie/Jean) was born in Wellington Country, Ontario on the 9th of July, 1865.  Dr. Carson was the eldest child of Joseph Standish Carson and the former Martha Wallace.  Dr. Carson’s father was first a school teacher and then a school inspector.  Her siblings were; Susanna, Henrietta, Joseph (born and died in 1871), John “Hilliard” and Annie.

Dr. Sarah Jane Carson attended Trinity Medical College and graduated M.D.,C.M. from The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1889.  According to the 1892 Ontario Medical Register, she joined the College of Physicians and Surgeons on the 22nd of May, 1889.  Dr. Carson initially set up her medical practice in the Newbury, (Middlesex County) area.  By 1901, Dr. Carson was practicing medicine in Chatham and working with Dr. James H. Duncan.

On the 15th of January, 1908 she delivered her sister Susanna’s son, Joseph Eben Moyes in Chatham.  Sadly her sister Susanna died a short time later on the 7th of February, 1908 and baby Joseph Eben Moyes died in July of that same year. Mother and son are buried at the Maple Leaf Cemetery in Chatham.  (Her sister, Dr. Susanna Carson Rijnhart M.D. graduated from The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1888.  She published a book called ‘With The Tibetans In Tent and Temple’ in 1901.  The book recounts her missionary work in China with her first husband Petrus Rijnhart.)

In the 1922 Ontario Medical Register Dr. Jennie Carson was living in Toronto and she was working at the Y.W.C.A. on McGill Street.  She eventually moved to Vancouver, British Columbia with her mother and her sister Annie.  She became the secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in Vancouver and moved to New Westminster in 1927 and became the secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in New Westminster.

Dr. Carson died on the 28th of February, 1933.   She was buried in a family plot at the Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, purchased by her brother-in-law, Arthur Dingman.  Also buried there was Dr. Carson’s mother, Martha Wallace Carson who died on the 6th of December, 1924.  Her sister Anna Carson Dingman died on the 16th of November, 1960 and Mr. Dingman died in 1966.  Cemetery staff advise the only marker at the Dingman/Carson family plot is the one that appears below.

*Dr. James Henry Duncan also appears on the Chatham-Kent Physician Tribute website.