This biography is presented as published.  However you should know that the information about the early history of the Carman family, especially the Medieval English information, is family folklore.   There are  known errors in some cases (which will be discussed in other areas - watch for hyperlinks) and a lot of it is has just never been verified, although many have tried.  But it makes a great story and just may be basically correct.

Sketch and Lineage of   Earle P. Carman

from

Jordan’s Encyclopedia of Biography

(Pennsylvania)

1915

"Conspicuous among those members of the Pittsburgh Bar who have become prominent within the last decade is Earle Park Carman, well known not only as a successful lawyer but also a financial expert. Although belonging to the younger generation of professional men, Mr. Carman is exceptionally experienced, having been associated with large enterprises from his youth.

Mr. Carman was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and received his early education in the public schools, afterward attending Grove City College and then studying for his profession at the West Virginia University, where he completed the Law Course in 1906. He was admitted to practice at the Pittsburgh Bar December 15, 1906, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, October 15, 1907, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, November 11, 1912.

The fact that it was necessary for Mr. Carman to work his way through college gave him the advantage which falls to the lot of every youth so situated, though not to all with the same fullness of opportunity with which it came to him - the advantage of learning at the same time from books and from life. While a student, Mr. Carman was employed as a stenographer by various large interests, including the law firm of Reed, Smith, Shaw & Beal, of Pittsburgh, the credit department of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, and as Secretary to W. B. Storey, Jr., then Chief Engineer of the Santa Fe Railway System, now Vice President of that System. The experience thus gained must have been of inestimable value to the young man, and that his natural ability had enabled him to profit by it in no ordinary measure was apparent from the outset of his career.

From 1906 to 1909, Mr. Carman was associated with the law firm of Blakley & Calvert, of Pittsburgh, devoting his time largely to the practice of corporation law in all courts and rising by dint of thorough equipment and intense application into well deserved prominence. From 1909 to the present time he has practiced alone.

In 1912-13, Mr. Carman traveled abroad for six months, in Europe and South America, making a study of foreign banking systems. On his return he became assistant to the head of the French-American Bank, of Wall Street, New York, and remained in that position until the bank went into liquidation. Mr. Carman then returned to Pittsburgh and shortly afterwards was made Receiver of the High Grade Oil Companies and the Virginia Coal Company by appointment of the Federal Courts in Pittsburgh, New York, and West Virginia.

Mr. Carman is a frequent contributor to financial periodicals and an occasional lecturer on financial topics. His insight into financial problems is well illustrated by the fact that he was the first man to publicly advocate important measures in the development of the Federal Reserve Banking System which were afterwards adopted by the Federal Reserve Board and the National Association of Credit Men. These measures were suggested by Mr. Carman in an article entitled "The Change in Credit Methods Made Necessary by the Federal Reserve Act", which was published in the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, of New York, April 24, 1915, later appeared in pamphlet form and soon found a permanent place in financial literature in the libraries of the American Bankers Association and of all the Federal Reserve Banks.

In the mentality of Mr. Carman, the legal mind and the mind of the financier are harmoniously blended and this combination has impressed upon his successes a stamp of singular distinction. Deeply read in the law and in finance, with an accurate conception of business psychology and a marvelous memory, he possesses rare skill in the application of his knowledge and an insight into character which enables him to penetrate all disguises and renders it well neigh impossible for him to be taken by surprise. These attributes are well understood by the public and the profession and have caused him to be regarded as a very formidable antagonist.

Although deeply absorbed in his work, Mr. Carman is actively interested in public affairs that make for civic progress and improvement. He is a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and serves on its Finance and Banking Committee, and is a member of the Masonic Fraternity and of the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Carman is a man of valiant fidelity, a true friend, and possesses faculty of inspiring loyal attachment in others. His appearance is, perhaps, best described by the simple recital of what he has accomplished, for his face and bearing show him to be a man who has done what is recorded of him and indicate that his present achievements are only a beginning.

THE CARMAN LINE

The Carman family is one of the oldest of the Anglo-Saxon race. Its authentic ancestry, based on official records, begins in the English Nobility of the reign of Edward The Confessor (A.D. 1042), but the name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in the time of Alfred the Great (A.D. 891-901), in the genealogies of the Bishops of Mercia (A.D. 670-796) and is mentioned by Bede, the first historian of England.

The following is a condensed chart of the ancestral line of Earle Park¹ Carman from A.D. 1042 to the date of his birth

(1) John Carman, holding a lordship in Surrey, A.D.1042, and holding the same A.D.1085-86, as per records in the Domesday Book. (2) John Carman of Surrey, in the lit of Sir Knights Crusaders of the English Contingent of the First Crusade, A.D.1096. (3) John, A.D. 1125, holds same lands in Surrey. (4) William, 1149, son of the preceding, holds same lands and manor. (5) William, 1171, son of the preceding, is in the Battle of Abbey Charters. (6) Thomas, 1199, son of the preceding, in the same records. (7) John, 1224, in Cinque Port Records, and his son. (8) Henry, 1254, in the same records of Harwich and Herts County. (9) Henry, son of the preceding, is in the so-called second historic census of England A.D.1273, the Rotuli Hundredoreum or Hundred Rolls. He holds a manor and desmesnes at Hemel Hempstead, and is also referred to as Henry Carman and "Matilda his wife@. (10) William, 1299, who succeeds as heir, who has (11) William, born 1325, who has (12) John, born 1354, who has (13) John, born 1378, who by wife Ann Stratford, has a son (14) Henry, born 1404, who succeeds to the estate as only surviving heir. His son (15) Thomas, born 1430, has (16) Thomas, born 1459, who has (17) John, born 1482, who among others has (18) Thomas, born 1517, and William, born (?), both Puritan leaders and both burned at the stake at Norwich, William in 1557 and Thomas in 1558. With the latter in the same fire was William Seaman, of Mendelsham in Norfolk. Soon after a daughter of William Carman became the wife of a son of the martyr, William Seaman. (See Bloomfield's "History of Norfolk"; Neal's "Puritan Martyrs", etc.)

Thomas Carman, the martyr of 1558 (born 1517), had three sons - (19) Thomas, born 1539, died 1548, (19) John, born 1541; (19) Henry, born 1547.

Of these, Henry, born 1547, had Henry, who had Henry, born 1597, who in 1620 went to Virginia in the ship "Duty". (See Hottons "boriginal Lists of Immigrants from 1600 to 1700".) Also see account of him in "Makers of the Nation".

We resume the lineage with (18) Thomas Carman, born 1517, who had (19) John, born 1541, who had (20) John, born 1563, who had (21) John, born 1584, who was the father of 

(22) John Carman, the Puritan Ancestor of Plymouth Colony, who in 1631 came in the ship "Lyon" and was of Lynn, where in 1632 he had by wife Florence Fordham (daughter of the Rev. Robert Fordham) a son John and a daughter Abigail. Next of Wethersfield, Colony of Connecticut, and in 1643, with his father-in-law, of the Committee who negotiated the purchase of about 120,000 acres of land on Long Island, extending from Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean, of the Rockaway and Merrick tribes of Indians. In 1644 this purchase was confirmed to himself (John Carman) and six other Englishmen. Of these, one was the noted Captain John Seaman, who in 1641 was co-patentee of Stamford. In 1644 John Carman was one of the first five families that settled on this patent - all but one of the families being of or from Hemel Hempstead, England, and the settlement was named Hempstead (originally "New Hempstead") and the first child born in the settlement was Caleb, son of John and Florence Carman.

We now resume the lineage with

(I) John Carman, who came in the "Lyon" in 1631 and who is first of the American Lineage. His son

(II) John, born in Lynn, 1632, married Hannah, daughter of Captain John Seaman. He had

(III) John, born in Hempstead, Long Island, 1656, who by wife Mary, daughter of Simon and Mary Cooper, had

(IV) William, born in Jamaica, Long Island, in 1680 who by wife Ann (Denton), had

(V) Elijah, born in Jamaica, in 1705, who by wife Elizabeth (Bloodgood) had sons Elijah, William, Joshua, Jonathan, Daniel, Nathaniel, Thomas, Caleb, and Jehiel. Elijah (V) served in the French and Indian War in northern New York and at its close removed with his family to Monmouth County, New Jersey, where was born April 21, 1768,

(VI) Jehiel, who came with other colonists to western Pennsylvania in 1784, where he settled in what is now Washington County, and later in life acquired by Patent from the Commonwealth a large track of land, some of which has remained in the family name to the present time (1915). Four of his older brothers, Elijah, Nathaniel, Daniel, and Thomas served in the patriot army during the Revolution in the famous First Battalion of the First Regiment of the Continental Line of New Jersey, all credited to the quota of Monmouth County. Another brother, Jonathon, was in the First Regiment of the New York Continental Line and was killed at the battle of Long Island.

In 1795, Jehiel married Margaret Nearing, of Washington County, Pa.. He had sons Elijah, Daniel, Jonathon, Joseph, Enoch, and William Cooper. In the latter part of his life, he moved to Jefferson County, Ohio, where he acquired other lands and died in 1855.

(VII) Elijah, eldest son of Jehiel and Margaret (Nearing) Carman, was born in what is now Independence Township, Washington County, Pa., October 20, 1797, where he lived during practically all of his lifetime of ninety years. He married Eleanor, daughter of William and Margaret Richardson, also of Washington County, Pa. He left surviving sons William, Jonathon, Jehiel, and Louis Wetzel, and four daughters.

(VIII) Louis Wetzel, youngest son of Elijah and Eleanor (Richardson) Carman was born in what is now Independence Township, Washington County, Pa. August 11, 1841. On April 4, 1872, he married Rebecca J. (Born March 15, 1850) daughter of John and Elizabeth Buckey, of Brooke County, West Virginia. To this union eight children were born, two of whom died in early youth and six of whom survive (1915), namely Maude C., wife of Rev. R.W. Adair, of the Minnesota M.E. Conference; Nellie C., wife of Prof. Frank W. Rineohl, of Larimore, North Dakota; Charles Strickler, of Chicago, Il; Earnest Clark, of the Minneapolis, MN Bar; Carl Buckey of East Liverpool, Ohio; and the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Carman died January 2, 1889, and Mr. Carman (Louis W.) Now resides with his daughter, Mrs. Rineohl.

(IX) Earle Park, son of Louis W. And Rebecca (Buckey) Carman, was born in Independence Township, Washington County, Pa., March 28, 1880.

ANCESTRAL HISTORY AND RECORDS

The above chart, prior to the Pennsylvania line, is taken from "American Families of Historic Lineage, Long Island Edition", published in 1915 by National American Society (New York), and from the genealogical records of the Long Island Historical Society, Brooklyn, N.Y., and the Public Library of New York City. In the first mentioned work numerous records and authorities are cited and in it appears ancestral history of which the following is part:

In the list of names of persons entered in Domesday Book, "holding lands in the time of King Edward the Confessor" (A.D. 1041-1064) we find a John Seaman and a John Carman living in the County of Surrey, where the respective families were "possessed of domains, manors, and others of the forms of properties of that time" (1042), and with this year the authentic records and tracings of these families begin. There is no mention of either name in the Domesday records of any of the other counties embraced therein. Both names, however, appear much earlier in the annals of Britain. Carman is in the genealogies of the Bishops of Mercia, 670-796, and is mentioned by Bede, the first historian of England. It is also found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in the time of Alfred the Great, 871-901. Seaman also appears in these early records. These data bring both names very near to the beginnings of Saxon rule in England in the fifth century, and also indicate that both families must have been of the leading and influential families for some time prior to 1042, as also in 1085-86, the years in which the Domesday Book census was taken, by order of William the Conqueror. This precious historical document, or census, is still preserved in the British Museum. That both families were of consequence is also shown by the Domesday entries, "John" Carman and "John" Seaman - both having a first or Christian name in the time of the Confessor (1042), which was something very unusual at this period. "It is impossible," says Arthur ("Christian and Family Names, Their Origins and Meanings") "to state at what precise period names became stationary, or began to descend hereditarily in baptismal form." According to Camden, Sur (or Sir) names with a first or Christian name prefix began to be taken up in France just before A.D. 1000 and in England just before the beginning of the reign of the Confessor, A.D. 1041.

In the Domesday Records of 1085-86 both are entered as "holding lordships in Surrey in 1042" and this seems to imply that John Seaman and the John Carman of 1085-86 were the same individuals of record in 1042. Neither of the names appear in the Domesday Records of any of the other counties. In 1096 we find a John Seaman and a John Carman in the list of "Sir Knyghtes Crusaders" of "the First Holie War", and as neither name is found in the records of any county but Surrey we are justified in assuming these as descendants of the Carman and Seaman holding lordships in 1085-86 and 1042. * * *

In the thirteenth century we find the main or parent line of the Carmans in the second historic census of England in the time of Edward the First - the Rotuli Hundredorum, or Hundred Rolls, A.D.1273, and recorded as owners of desmesnes, manor and properties at Hemel Hempstead. Henry Carman is the recorded owner of these properties and according to the same records his wife was Matilda. In the next and following centuries the Carmans are of record as holding the same domains and manor at Hemel Hempstead.

The Hemel Hempstead domains and manor of 1273 descended from Henry and "Matilda his wife" from generation to generation, from sire to son, and then in the fourteenth generation from Henry and Matilda, and 333 years from the census record of 1273, in the year 1606, an event occurred of pre-eminent interest in the annals of the Carman family of this country. In this year, 1606, as the official records show, there was born in Hemel Hempstead John Carman., the Pilgrim Father, who came in the ship "Lyon" in 1631, the Puritan ancestor of the American Family of the name. A year prior among those who came in the "Winthrop Fleet" was John Seaman, the Captain John Seaman of historic fame, as set forth in the history of the Seaman family, and with this John Seaman of 1630 and John Carman of 1631 begins another series of remarkable coincidences - the American series, so to speak.

The county histories and various reference authorities named at the close of this chapter⁵ contain the more or less extended details of the Carman lineage from Henry Carman of 1273 and on. * * *

John Carman, first of the American line, died in Hempstead, Long Island in 1653. A chair brought by him on the ship "Lyon" in 1631 is now in the possession of Dr. Albro Carman of New York City.

COAT-OF-ARMS

There seems to be some doubt as to the exact form of the coat-of-arms of the ancient British family and the American descendants differ in opinion regarding it. The coat-of-arms accepted as authentic by Bliss Carman, the Canadian Poet, and other Canadian descendants of John and Florence Carman, and some of the present family of Long Island is; A castle surmounting a helmet, and with the motto, "Dieu en Avant" (God and Forward). This coat-of-arms is said to date from the First Crusade, A.D. 1096."