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Below is a family biography included in the book, Portrait and Biographical Record of Johnson and Pettis County Missouri published by Chapman Publishing Company in 1895.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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R. WILSON CARR, M. D., has for eighteen years been one of the leading practitioners of Sedalia, where he located in 1877. He belongs to the homeopathic school, and in both the practice of medicine and surgery has ever met with excellent success. He is an electro-therapeutist, having for many years made electricity a special study, and was one of the first physicians to use it and find it efficacious in disease.

Dr. Carr was born on the 3d of March, 1831, near Baltimore, Md., and is a son of John Carr, a native of Anne Arundel County, Md. His grandfather, Robert Carr, was also a native of the same state. The latter had a brother. Col. John Carr, who served under that title during the Revolutionary War. The ancestors of our subject came to this country with Lord Baltimore, and received a grant of several thousand acres of land in Maryland. His father owned and resided upon a part of it, there engaging in farming. On his plantation in 1694 an Episcopal Church was erected, which still stands, being over two hundred years old. His father had four brothers, two of whom became physicians. He served as a private in the War of 1812, and after his return located in Baltimore, where he died at the age of seventy years, during the Civil War. His wife, who was in her maidenhood Eliza Wilson, was born in Baltimore, where her father, George Wilson, who was a native of Scotland, had located. Both parents were members of the Episcopal Church, and the mother’s death occurred at the age of sixty-nine years. In the family were four sons and one daughter, the latter of whom is now deceased. The others are Robert and John, who are merchants of Baltimore; Samuel, a farmer residing near the old home in Maryland; and R. Wilson, the youngest of the family.

The Doctor was reared to manhood in his native state, and attended Dickinson College, of Carlisle, Pa., from which he was graduated. He then began the study of medicine in the medical department of the University of Maryland, graduating from that school in March, 1852, when he entered Bay Hospital as resident physician.

In 1853 Dr. Carr went to California, by way of Panama, and after remaining in San Francisco for a time practiced medicine in Downieville, Sierra County, until the fall of 1856, when, in company with an expedition under General Walker, he went to Nicaragua as a surgeon. He remained with him until the spring of 1857, when he returned to Baltimore, where he engaged in practice. During the war he rendered professional service at Antietam and Gettysburg as a volunteer surgeon In 1876 he took up the study of homeopathy, which he has since practiced. The following year he located in Sedalia, where he has made many friends and has a large and lucrative practice. He makes a specialty of the diseases of women and electro-therapeutics. He has all the appliances needed for electrical treatment, in which he is very successful. His office is in the Alamo Block, on Third Street. Besides his many patients in Sedalia and vicinity, he has others from adjoining states.

The Doctor was married, in Baltimore, to Miss Susan E. Johnson, a native of that city, and a daughter of Dorsey Johnson. Her family took a prominent part in the Revolutionary War, and one of her ancestors was the first Governor of Maryland. In Sedalia Dr. Carr served for five terms as City Physician, and is a member of the State Homeopathic Institute of Medicine. In politics he is a Democrat, and also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor and Knights Templar, the latter of the Masonic fraternity. He holds membership with Calvary Episcopal Church, in which for fifteen years he has been Vestryman.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the Pettis County, Missouri portion of the book,  Portrait and Biographical Record of Johnson and Pettis County Missouri published in 1895 by Chapman Publishing Co.  For the complete description, click here: Pettis County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Pettis County, Missouri family biographies here: Pettis County, Missouri Biographies

View a map of 1904 Pettis County, Missouri here: Pettis County, Missouri Map

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