He returned to his New York family twice over the next eight years but with the death of his wife in 1905, he moved his five children to be with him in Nome, Alaska.

[1] There, Carrie attended Nome high school and graduated as salutatorian in the seven-student class of 1913.

When she completed additional schooling in Tacoma, Washington, she began teaching in Teller and Haycock, Alaska.

[1] In Teller, she met a prospector, Arthur McLain, and after marrying, the couple moved to Nome where they raised four children.

Carrie worked briefly as a welfare agent there and in 1943 became Nome's first woman city clerk.