The Carson family was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1831. The family moved to Nauvoo, Illinois around the time when Church President Joseph Smith was killed. In 1851, the Carson family began to move west with the Harry Walton Company. After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, David began working as a freighter to take supplies from Salt Lake to San Bernardino, California where missionaries were working to help boost the economy of Utah.

David Carson married Millie Jane Rawlins on July 31, 1853 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The family moved from place to place from 1855 to 1864 before church leaders asked the family to help settle Cache Valley. While doing so, David and his brother-in-law brought the first threshing machine to the valley.1

On July 1, 1866, David decided that Cache Valley would become the family's new home and moved them to Richmond.