My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM W. CARR, farmer and stock-raiser, section 27, post-office Carthage, is one of the men who has spent nearly his entire life in Jasper county. He was born in Tippecanoe county, Ind., Jan. 16, 1836. When a child of two years his parents immigrated to southwest Missouri. Staid a while in Barton county, and were residents of Jasper county at its organization. Here our subject grew to manhood, and acquired an education at the pioneer schools. His father was engaged in freighting from Booneville to the settlements. He was a volunteer in the war with Mexico, and died in 1851. The care and responsibility of the family subsequently devolved upon him. He continued freighting and farming until 1854, and then engaged in freighting from Kansas City to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for two or three years. In 1856 he purchased the farm upon which he lives. He was married April 8, 1857, to Miss Martha E. Arrington, a native of Iowa, and with his young wife settled upon his land. Their means were limited, but with the energy born of youth and health, they started to carve out their fortune. They met with many reverses the first years. He started from home in 1859 with a freight team of four yoke of oxen, and returned with but one steer, the rest having died on the way of Spanish fever. Notwithstanding these difficulties, they had accumulated quite a property and were looking forward to the time when their days would be spent in quiet and plenty, when the civil war broke out, dissipating every fond hope, putting a stop to every industrial pursuit, and arraying neighbor against neighbor in deadly feud. Mr. Carr was from the first a staunch Union man, and early in the struggle took up arms under the stars and stripes. He was enrolled in May, 1861, in Captain Stemmons’s company of guards. The following year he was regularly mustered into Company G, Seventy-sixth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, which subsequently became the Seventh Provisional Battalion. In 1863 he enlisted in Company C, Fifteenth Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry. He participated in all the experiences of these several commands, serving as a subaltern officer, and was often in command of squadrons of men, and assisted at the fortifications of Carthage. He has a well-established record of efficient service and brave and dashing conduct, and though quite young, was a favorite with the men and trusted by the regimental and staff officers. His family were of course subject to the hardships and indignities of these trying times. His wife was at Oregon during the rebel raid, but for some unexplained reason was not disturbed. In 1862 George Sly, a soldier of the Sixth Kansas Regiment, lay sick at the house of William Bush, where Mrs. Carr was also stopping, when a squad of bushwhackers rode up, took him out and shot him dead in the door-way. Mr. Carr was discharged in July, 1865, doffed the blue of the soldier, and again donned the jeans of a farmer. His wife unearthed the little treasure she had prudently buried during the troublous times, and with this and the horse he had ridden during his service as a nucleus, they again resumed their farming operations, so long abandoned, since which time they have in the main prospered. They have a family of eight children: Emma A., wife of Richard Lair; William L., Isaac L., Laura A., Clara B., Hattie M., Carman D., and Ada C. His farm consists of 206 acres, well improved; also owns 160 acres of improved land in section 14.