Born on a farm near Cadiz, Ohio, Carson attended the public and high schools.

He became affiliated with the legal department of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. in 1915.

He was transferred to Base Hospital, One Hundred and Nineteenth Unit, Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, and served there until honorably discharged in 1919 as a corporal.

He was admitted to the bar in 1919 and commenced practice in Canton, Ohio, in 1922.

He served as member of the faculty of McKinley Law School 1926–1942, where he received his J.D.