Sam Carr 1872-1905

CARR, CRANE, SIMMONS

Posted By: Volunteer - Barbara Evans
Date: 6/12/2012 at 10:02:24

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Scrapbook A, page 335, Keosauqua Public Library; Keosauqua, IA

The Late Sam Carr

Who committed suicide March 17, 1905 Carr was born 33 years ago last month. His early life was largely spent at Selma, this county, where his father was a section boss. He was a young man of good habits, and was favorably regarded by the community. He had an uncontrollable temper, and there is no doubt he was temporarily insane when he committed the series of fearful deeds, - the violent assault on his wife, the burning of all the farm buildings and the shooting and killing of himself. Carr lived three miles west of Farmington.
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Mrs. Alice Carr
Wife of Sam Carr, who in a fit of insanity attempted her life. Mrs. Carr is highly regarded by all who know her.
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TERRIBLE TRAGEDY NEAR FARMINGTON.
-A Frenzied Husband After Attempting to Kill His Wife, Burn His House and Barn and Then Shoots Himself to Death.
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Shortly after five o’clock Friday afternoon word reached town of the tragedy enacted a few moments before in a little community known as the Flat Rock neighborhood about four miles west of Farmington. In a fit of anger, the culmination of his domestic troubles, Samuel Carr, after assaulting his wife with a bottle and attempting to kill her by shooting at her with a shot gun, poured kerosene about the house and contents and other buildings and setting fire to the same, sent a bullet from a 38 calbre [sic] revolver into his brain and died instantly a few feet distant from his burning property.

There have been many and varied reports of the deplorable affair but it seems that the particulars are about as follows:

Mr. Carr had been at home all day at work on a barn which he was building. When the assault was made on his wife he was only prevented from killing her by the timely interference of his brother, George, who disarmed him and took the sister-in-law to the mother’s home. He stayed with her and the aged mother, thinking the frenzied man would follow, while two other brothers went to the scene of trouble. They found the house and other buildings in flames and heard the report from the revolver a few moments before they reached the place and believed that the body of their brother was in the burning building, but about that time some neighbors, coming from an opposite direction through the rear of the premises, discovered the body of the dead man a few feet from his burning barn.

The scene of destruction is about two hundred yards from the dead man’s boyhood home.

Mr. Carr was a sober, industrious, saving and prosperous farmer; he was well known and well liked. For several years he was a bridge carpenter on the railroad, but a little over a year ago he quit that employment, married, and began making a home on his 90 acre farm in the neighborhood where he had always lived. His remains were brought to town Sunday afternoon for burial, the services being conducted by the Odd Fellows.

The aged mother is prostrated by grief. We understand that the wife’s injuries are not serious. The brothers of the deceased have only the highest regard for their sister-in-law and lay no blame on her in any particular.

It is perhaps only proper for the editors of the REPUBLICAN to add to the foregoing plain and comprehensive statement of our correspondent, that the reports published in some of the daily papers immediately following the tragedy, were overdrawn and incorrect, especially as to Mr. Carr’s having come home from town drunk, just previous to his suicide, and that he had been on a spree all that day. As our correspondent says, we take it as a fact that Mr. Carr was a sober and industrious man. The deceased was born in 1872 at Selma, this county, and his brother Stephen, a highly respected gentlemen,[sic] is and has been for years a resident of Village township. Three other brothers, George, Will and Ed, all good citizens, reside in Farmington township and a sister, Mrs. Jacob Simmons, resides at Bonaparte. Mr. Carr was 33 years and 19 days old when the revolver shot ended his life. December 22, 1903, he was married to Miss Alice Crane of Eldon but no children were born to them. Only a few weeks ago deceased was elected director of the Flat Rock school district which indicates that he had the respect of his neighbors. Acquaintances say his great fault was an ungovernable temper and in the heat of passion following a dispute the charitable conclusion seems to be that his madness degenerated into temporary insanity.