In 1850, the Carlin family included his 90-year-old mother-in-law, three sons and two daughters as well as a 21 year old farm laborer, but no slaves.

[4] Carlin built a log cabin across from the mouth of the Missouri River and operated a ferry until 1818, when Illinois became a state.

Carlin was one of the first five commissioners (as was his brother-in-law John Huitt) and donated a large parcel of land for Carrollton, although he abstained from the vote designating it the county seat.

Noted for his physical prowess and skill as a woodsman and rider as well as courage, Carlin served as Greene County's first sheriff, then twice won election to the Illinois Senate.

In 1834 he received an appointment as collector of federal funds at the land office at Quincy, Illinois, where Carlin would continue to live during his gubernatorial term.

As a Jacksonian Democrat as well as Indian fighter, Carlin supported the President's campaign against the national bank (which scholars now agree contributed to the Panic of 1837 which devastated Illinois' economy) and argued that strict compliance with state charter requirements would profit the young state.

[3] In 1837, Illinois' legislature had approved moving the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield, despite the opposition of Governor Joseph Duncan, a former Jacksonian Democrat who had split with the President and won election as a Whig.

Illinois ultimately sold bonds with a face value of $804,000 for $261,500, which proved a source of political controversy for many years, and which led to suspension of canal construction in 1842.

Illinois politicians of both parties had welcomed Joseph Smith and fellow Mormons when the fled Missouri.

[7] After his term ended, Carlin returned to his farm between Maucoupin and Apple Creeks in Greene County, but continued politically active.

[9][10] His nephew William Passmore Carlin became a career U.S. Army officer, and Brigadier General of Illinois volunteers during the American Civil War, and later served as assistant director of the Freedman's Bureau in Tennessee, although his uncle was pro-slavery and Negro-hating, according to a long-lived Edwardsville judge.