JOHN
E. CARR. As a leading member of the Williamson county bar, with a field of
practice at Johnston City, John E. Carr has varied his professional career
with sallies into real estate and with financial transactions as a promoter
of banking enterprises at various points in the state, and has otherwise
identified himself with the material and substantial side of life. Born near
Parrish, Franklin county, Illinois, in October, 1867, Mr. Carr is a son of
John S. and Eliza (Estes) Carr.
John S. Carr, a farmer-mechanic, settled in Franklin county, Illinois,
during the 'forties, and died there in November, 1875. He was born in Wilson
county, Tennessee, developed a genius for mechanics, became a gunsmith and
combined it with farming after coming to Illinois. His father was Dr.
Richard Carr, who was born and reared in North Carolina, came out to
Tennessee with his six brothers, and was married (first) to Jemima Sawyer,
who died after the birth of the following children: Wilson ("Dock") Carr,
who never married, came over to Illinois and later went to Missouri, where
he invented the now famous "Missouri Meerschaum," and died in Macedonia,
Illinois, when about ninety years of age; Allen, who left a family at his
death at Duquoin, Illinois; Thomas R., a tailor, followed a desire to go to
Europe shortly after the Civil war, spent several years in France, where he
was married, and returned to the United States a childless widower, his
death occurring at St. Charles, Illinois; John S.; Mrs. Thomas Trovillion,
who spent her life in Pope county, where she died, leaving a family; and
Sarah, who married Elisha Compton and died near Macedonia, Illinois, having
a family. Dr. Richard Carr was married a second time, and three children
were born to this union; Eliza, the wife of Thomas Austin, of Creal Springs,
Illinois; Betty, who married a Mr. Wrenshaw, of Pope county, where she died;
and “Peter,” who became the wife of James Ferguson and passed away in the
same county.
John S. Carr married Eliza Estes, a daughter of Laban Estes, a pioneer of
Franklin county from Tennessee, and she died from the kick of a horse in
December, 1894, having been the mother of the following children: James and
Charles, who are living in Franklin county; John E., Ernetta, the wife of
Charles Rains, of Frankfort, Illinois, for many years a teacher in this
section; and several children who died in infancy.
John E. Carr attended the Hayes school, as his home district was called,
then the graded schools of Crawford's Prairie, and finally the Lebanon,
Illinois, institutions. Having come up under country environment, he was
unable to free himself from the farm until past his thirtieth year. Mr. Carr
prepared himself for the law by three years of reading in the office of
Judge W. H. Williams, of Benton, and was admitted to the bar on examination
at Mount Vernon in 1896. He utilized every opportunity to adapt himself to
his prospective profession, in literary societies in the country and in
"mock courts," and even in actual lawsuits before the country justice, his
first case in court being one in which he volunteered to defend a country
youth who was charged with disturbing the peace. Still an understudy at the
bar, he faced two talented but unlicensed officials as prosecutors, and a
court that was less wise than he looked. Replying to the proposition of the
prosecution to separate the witnesses, Mr. Carr quoted the law holding that
witnesses should not be separated save in capital offense. This court
sustained this position as being the law and in the jury trial which
followed the boy was cleared.
In the spring of 1897 Mr. Carr came to Johnston City and opened an office
for practice and has maintained one here since. Much of his civil business
has arisen from relations of employed and employer in this industrial
community and his legal work covers a multitude of causes of no interest
save to the litigants themselves. He has taken advantage of the growth of
Johnston City to deal in real estate and early in the history of the city he
joined Mr. Ed Duncan in platting and exploiting an addition called Duncan's
First Addition. Following the success of this, the gentlemen began dealing
in coal lands and in handling many large deals for the time earned a
reasonable profit for themselves. He subsequently dissolved with Mr. Duncan
and has continued buying and selling, building business houses and
residences and taking generally an active part in the material growth of the
town. The rather sudden acquirement of capital led Mr. Carr to enter the
banking business. He promoted, with others, the first financial institution
in the city in August, 1894, the Johnston City State Bank. He is attorney
for the Citizens State Bank here, and helped to organize it; organized and
operated for a time the West Frankfort State Bank, the First National Bank
of Westfield, of which he was the first president; was the first president
of the Dahlgren State Bank, Dahlgren, Hamilton county, and its organizer;
and this was the first state bank of that county; a private bank at Joppa,
Illinois, the first bank of the place; a private bank at Cypress, Illinois;
the Farmers Bank at Pulaski, Illinois; the Bank of Brownstown; the Peoples
Bank of Loogootee, Illinois; the Bank of Simpson, Johnson county; the
Farmers Bank of Oakdale; the Citizens Bank of Hagerstown; and the Farmers
Commercial Bank of Fordyce, Illinois. He is still interested in a few of
these institutions.
Mr. Carr is a Republican. His relation to party matters in Williamson county
has been merely that of an interested spectator, while in his native county
he was for many years chairman of his township committee, for a long time a
member of the county committee, and was chairman of the county convention
which first endorsed the candidacy of Senator Hopkins and declared for Mr.
Roosevelt, the first county to do so in Illinois. He served Johnston City as
its attorney for several years, and fought its legal battles of various
descriptions through the early years of its municipal history.
On December 24, 1902, Mr. Carr was married in Mount Vernon, Illinois, to
Miss Flore A. Burton, a daughter of W. R. and Margareitte (Tolly) Burton, of
Dahlgren, Illinois. Mrs. Carr is the oldest of three children, the others
being: Mrs. Ada Lockett, wife of ex-County Clerk Lockett, of Hamilton
county; and J. Otowell Burton, for many years postmaster at Dahlgren. Mrs.
Carr studied music in Ewing College and later took further instruction in
Missouri, and is an accomplished player and vocalist.
Extracted from A History of Southern Illinois, 1912, Volume 2, page 801-803
| Union | Johnson | |
| Alexander |
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Massac McCracken KY |
| Ballard KY |
