Ellen Carlson was born in Rockland, Michigan, circa 1901 to Swedish immigrant parents, Gustave and Anna, who moved to Rockland in 1899. Her father, a miner, was killed in a rockslide in 1915. Carlson attended school in Rockland, graduating from high school in 1918. Her college career was cut short when she was sent home from the Marquette Normal School because of the flu epidemic. She became a school teacher, first teaching in Victoria in a four room school that went through eighth grade. After Victoria she taught in Rockland, moving to Marquette in 1922 to finish her studies for a life certificate in teaching before moving to Wakefield for seven years. She moved back to Rockland to teach for seven more years, moving downstate to teach in Montrose, Flint, Ferndale and Taylor. Carlson retired in 1965 after 46 years of teaching, moving back to the house in Rockland her father built, and in which she was born.