“Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County,” published:  
Chicago;  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892.

M. O. CARDEN, contractor and builder of Dallas, was born in Roan county, 
Tennessee, September 3, 1845, the eighth in order of birth of the fifteen 
children of George W. and Tempy W. (Howard) Carden.  His father was a 
native of North Carolina and mother of Tennessee.  His father was taken to 
that State by his parents in 1817, when he was a boy of only five years of 
age; he grew up and married there, and learned the trade of wheelwright.  He 
is still living in that State, at the advanced age of eighty years.  He was born 
February 2, 1812, was private in the Indian war of 1836, and was Lieutenant 
in the late Confederate war, serving about three years.  He received a land 
warrant for the Indian war service.  He has been a Methodist Episcopal 
minister (local) for many years, and is a devout Methodist to this day.  He 
was a man most highly prized.  His wife died April 20, 1867.  His first wife, 
nee Betsey White, died in 1843.  He had seven children by her.  During the 
war the subject of this sketch was a member of the Home Guards of Roan 
county, and did duty on the skirmish line.  Shortly after his marriage in the 
fall of 1876, he moved to Dallas, from Knoxville, and engaged in building 
and contracting, mostly in Dallas; has erected many good residences here 
and some other buildings.  He generally employs ten to fifteen carpenters.

In 1867 George W. married Mrs. Sophia (Johnston) Ladd, by whom there is 
no issue, though she is the mother of nine children.  Our subject is the eldest 
of a family of eight children of the second marriage.

He was married in Road county, Tennessee, in 1875, to Miss Della M. Cox, 
a native of Anderson county, that State, and a daughter of Cyrus and 
Elizabeth (Moore) Cox, natives also of Tennessee.  Her grandparents were 
natives of North Carolina.  Her parents came to Dallas in the fall of 1878 
and engaged in gardening; they are both now living in Dallas.  Mr. and Mrs. 
Carden have had four children, namely: Daisy M., Pearl, who died at the age 
of six years and a half, in June, 1887; two are deceased, J. W., who died in 
infancy, in 1877; and Asa O., Jr.

In politics, while he is not active in the councils of the party, Mr. Carden is a 
Democrat, and in religion he and his family are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church.

Submitted by: Justina Cook